Out of The Jungle
by Mamoo
Summary: When a soldier appears out of nowhere in Ponyville, he finds himself making friends, explaining what his world is like, and coming to terms with the horrors he faced. Mainly AJxOC.
1. Out Of The Frying Pan

**Welcome to my first MLP fic, it's a bit of a long chapter, sorry about that. Also, I'm labelling this T, but it contains graphic scenes and a few swears, so don't read on if you're offended by that stuff. Anyway, R&R please, and most of all, enjoy!**

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><p>It was a fairly normal evening in the Apple family farm, Applejack and Applebloom were busy sorting the day's harvest in the barn, it was tedious work, but it had to be done. However, Applejack had a hunch that something wasn't right, the air was wobbling as if they were stood in the middle of a desert, granted it was a warm summer's evening, but this wasn't natural. She was soon proved right when a loud bang reverberated throughout the barn, and a man materialised right before her eyes, he was dressed in dirty olive coloured combat clothes and wearing a tin hat, the man was lying on the ground, shuffling slightly. Lying next to him was a standard issue M16 rifle and a hand grenade.<p>

The man stood up groggily, looking around. His vision was blurry and he could hardly make out the shapes he was seeing. His vision soon cleared and he was confronted by two ponies looking at him, confused.

"Uhh... Hello?" Applejack said to the soldier, wondering who, or what he was. The soldier looked shocked and confused, understandably so since he had just woken up in a barn next to a talking pony.

"...Hey." The soldier said, slightly cautiously. He bent down to pick up the rifle and grenade and holstrered both.

"What's that you got there?" Applebloom asked quizzically, gesturing to the rifle on the soldier's back.

"It's my rifle." The soldier replied, pulling it back into his hands to show the young pony, who looked at him incredulously.

"Yer what?" She asked, before the soldier could give her an answer Applejack interrupted them.

"Don't be so nosy, Applebloom. I'm sorry, she can be a bit, well, nosy at times." She said apolagetically, the soldier waving his hand nonchalantly.

"It's perfectly fine, I'm not a stickler for manners where they're not needed." He removed his helmet and held it under his arm. "I've been bombarded with bad manners since I was drafted." He gave a hollow laugh, casting his mind back to his first day in the jungle.

"Drafted?" Applejack asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Look who's the nosy one now!" Applebloom's voice was laced with exasperation.

"Heh, you're a cheeky one, aren't you?" The soldier said, smiling down at the pony. "You remind me of my kid." His voice fell when he mentioned his only child, the poor boy was only one year old when his father left to fight for his country.

"Sounds like you miss him..." Applejack said, her voice held a hint of sadness.

"Yeah, I sure do." The soldier sighed, before looking back to Applebloom. "So is this your kid?" Applejack laughed heartily before answering.

"Goodness, no! This is my little sister Applebloom, and I'm Applejack by the way. S'good to be makin' your acquaintance."

"Well I'm Sergeant John Marsh, and likewise." John smiled. "By the way, where the fuck am I?" Applejack gasped and covered her sister's ears, who looked just as shocked.

"We don't use that language here!" Applejack hissed, clearly upset at the curse.

"Oh, sorry, it's been a while since I was in the company of anyone other than the troops or the enemy, I didn't mean to offend."

"Well that's alright, just to let ya know, we don't take too kindly to swearing, at least in the company of -" Applejack was interrupted by another loud bang behind her, both she and Applebloom spun around to see another man, an Asian man, standing in front of them, holding an AK47 rifle with bayonet. He was dressedin a tatty black shirt with crossed bandoliers, a bloodstained headband, and was wearing straw woven shoes. He looked confused and immediately pointed his rifle at the two ponies before him aggressively, both of whom backed off, worried.

"Nơi này!" The man screamed, thrusting the bayonet dangerously close to Applejack's face. John cocked his rifle and raised it, silently aligning the sights to the opponent's head. A second before he pulled the trigger, the man notcied him and dived into his midriff, trowing both men onto the ground.

"Bạn chết bây giờ!" The Asian man screamed into John's face, thrusing the bayonet at his chest. John barely blocked the blow, holding the knife inches above his chest. He used all his strength to throw the rifle to the left, knocking the enemy off balance, he took the opportunity to sweep the opponent's feet from under him, causing his to fall onto his back with a thud. John swiflty got up and stomped his boot into the man's face, causing blood to come out of the nose. Applejack covered her sister's eyes so she wouldn't be able to see the horrific fight that was unfolding before them. John pulled out his Colt .45 pistol and pulled the slide back, letting it return to the forward position with a click, he calmly pointed it at the enemy soldier, who was still recoiling from the brutal kick to the face.

He pulled the trigger a number of times, emptying the whole clip into the soldier's face. Blood sprayed in all directions as the rounds ripped through flesh and shattered bone, all with sickening squelching, crunching and cracking noises. After John holstered his pistol, he turned to the two ponies, one of which looked in utter disgust and horror at the lifeless, blood stained corpse in front of her, th other not really understanding what was going on.

"Is he..." Applejack started a sentence but was too shocked to finish.

"Dead? Yes, he's dead." John finished for her, receiving only a weak nod in return, the pony's eyes strangely transfixed on the body.

"Why... How... Did you really just do that?" She asked, not really knowing what to say.

"I had no choice, there's no reasoning with the VC, even without the language barrier." Applejack finally pulled her gaze away from the dead body and back to John. "Why don't you send your sister somewhere else, I think you need to be filled in." John suggested, gesturing to the smaller pony, who still couldn't see.

"Applebloom, go back to the house, and don't tell nobody what just happened, kay?" She nudged her sister, who reluctantly walked out of the barn, leaving just the two there. John sat himself down on a hay bale and loaded a fresh magazine into his pistol. Applejack simply stood where she was, trying her hardest to ignore the corpse.

"So, where exactly is this?" John asked, looking round the barn and out the door, seeing a small town not too far down the road and apple orchards as far as the eye could see.

"You're in the Apple family farm right now, pardner." Applejack replied enthusiastically, almost as if she were advertising it.

"No, no, I meant, like country, or region or something like that." John corrected, causing a slight 'oh' to escape the pony's lips.

"Well, this whole place is known as the Kingdom of Equestria, an' that town down the road a ways is Ponyville."

"Uh huh, and that's all there is to this place is it?" John stood up and walked towards the door, having a good look at the outside world.

"Sure as sugar is!"

"Then why are you from Texas?" John turned to look at Applejack with this question.

"Say what now?"

"Your accent, it's a Texan accent." Applejack looked at him as if he'd gone stir crazy.

"I don't know if that there fight screwed you up in the head or somethin' but I sure as dandy ain't from no place called Texas." She said exasperatedly.

"Oh, well where I come from there's a place called Texas and the accent sounds exactly like yours."

"Well ain't that a brain buster." Applejack replied, slightly sarcastically. "Anyhow, guess it's my turn to ask you a question."

"Ask away."

"Where the hay are you from?" She asked quickly.

"It's complicated, I'm originally from America, Washington to be exact, but I've been fighting in Vietnam for the past year or so."

"Vietnam? Sounds fancy." Applejack said excitedly.

"That's where that guy's from" John pointed to the dead body in the corner. "Shit like that happens constantly there."

"So that's all you do, kill people?"

"In a nutshell, yes." John said, almost resigning himself to the fact. "Except it's a lot bigger there, there's tanks and choppers and all sorts of scary shit going on."

"Whats an' whats?"

"Tanks are like these big metal vehicles that have a huge gun on top, and choppers are flying vehicles that carry people around and have guns too." John did his best to explain, but didn't seem to be doing a very good job of it.

"What's a gun?"

"My god I never expected to have to explain to a Texan what a gun was." John said under his breath, which Applejack wisely ignored. "This is a gun," he said, tapping his rifle,"in a nutshell, it kills people."

"What, just like that?"

"No, it throws little bits of sharp metal at them really fast, and I mean REALLY fast. Fast enough that the metal goes right into their bodies." Applejack grimaced as John explained, thinking about how much that must hurt.

"Have you ever... Been hit by one?" She asked, hoping to god that he hadn't, but John's face fell slightly as she asked, all but confirming her suspicions. He slowly rolled up his shirt, exposing a small, red mark on the far right side of his abdomen, Applejack winced noticeably, the mark looked pretty painful.

"This happened about eight months ago." He said, playing it off a little too much.

"Did it hurt?" Applejack asked, already knowing the answer.

"It was the single most painful experience of my life. By a mile."

"How can people let that happen to others?" She was confused, especially since she lived in a fairytale world of friendship and kindness.

"Oh that's not all that bad compared to some of the other stuff we do to each other." John waved it off as if it was nothing. "I've seen people covered in flaming sticky liquid, and guys who've fallen into pits full of Punji sticks."

"What sticks?"

"Punji sticks, the enemy use them as traps, they're just sharpened bamboo sticks usually, but sometimes they fill them with, uh, stuff."

"Stuff?"

"Yeah, stuff." Applejack was determined to get a staright answer on this matter if it killed her.

"What kind of stuff?" She said impatiently.

"Poo." She recoiled in disgust.

"Eww, tthat's horrible!"

"Sure is, you ain't seen a infected wound till you've seen a Punji one." Applejack felt like throwing up.

"Well, it was nice chattin', but it's gettin' dark an' I don't think I want to hear anything else about what you do." She turned towards the door, "Oh and by the way, you're welcome to sleep in the barn tonight, I'd offer you a proper bed, but I don't think it's a good idea for you to be meetin' everyone else. Not yet anyways."

John nodded silently, although he didn't really want to admit it, the barn would be the best place he'd sleep for weeks.

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><p><strong>Sorry about the slightly abrupt ending, I suddenly realised that I was onto my 5th page! This fic will be mainly about John and AJ, so if you like that pairing you're in luck! Anyway, thanks for reading and please leave a reivew.<strong>


	2. Broken Mind

**Thanks for the reviews, and reading back, it seems I made John a little too relaxed about the whole situation, but all that's about to change (heh heh heeeh).**

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><p>Applejack woke up in her bed, as usual. Birds were chirping as the first rays of the morning sun bathed the farm in their golden glow. Suddenly she remembered that she had an inter-dimensional traveller sleeping in the barn. She leapt out of bed and practically sprinted out the door. Luckily she was the only one awake so far, which meant she had time to move John if needs be.<p>

As she approached the barn, she strained her ears, listening for the faintest sound that would mean he was still there. Nothing. 'Maybe he's gone' She thought to herself, however, as she slowly creaked the barn door open, she saw him, sitting in the corner. His knees were held tightly up against his chest, and he seemed to be staring at nothing at all, as if he was deep in thought.

"John?" Applejack tried to get his attention, slightly creeped out by the weird way he was acting. Getting no reply, she tentatively stepped closer, as she neared the man, she heard him mumbling in a faint voice. Unable to discern what exactly he was saying, she moved closer and closer until she could hear him properly.

"_I'm in a dream aren't I? That's it, yeah, a dream. Wake up John, rise and shine. Oh god, I hear something, they're in the trees, haha, the trees, silly Vietcong, you don't belong in the trees. Oh crap a sniper, sniper in the tree, heh, man down, he's dead, haha, dead, imagine that._" Applejack didn't really understand why he was mumbling this, perhaps the pressure of everything had finally made his head crack. She moved even closer, so she was only a handful of steps away from him.

"Uhh... John?" She said, slightly louder this time, still he paid no attention and kept on mumbling to himself.

"_Run damn it, run for your damn lives. Enemy tanks, what are they doing here, hey look someone just got blown to little tiny itsy bitsy pieces, haha, look at that. Oh god they're charging, fix bayonets guys, haha, it's just like olden times. Why are we doing this, why are they doing this, we're getting torn apart, haha._" As Applejack moved her face within inches of his, she could see the horror, and the fear in his eyes, his hands were shaking violently and he was trembling from head to toe. She was about to snap him out of his trance, when one of his hands suddenly moved down to hold his upper hip, where he had shown her his bullet would yesterday.

"_Oh god, I'm hit, heh, it hurts so much, haha, ha, the pain, ha, it's unbearable. I gotta keep going, the private needs me. Keep, going, save, him. I'm bleeding, I'm bleeding bad, heh, it burns, gotta get to the bunker, save the private._" Applejack poked one cheek with her hoof, trying to snap him out of it. It worked.

"Aaaah! Ambush!" He shouted before he kicked Applejack back a few steps, causing her to land flat on her back. He then got onto his feet and stumbled out the door, the sunlight blinding him intensely. He could barely stand, let alone walk, but he staggered down the road through the apple orchards, clutching his head with one hand and stabilising himself whenever he could with the other. Applejack jumped up onto her hooves and sprinted after him, she couldn't let this guy walk right into the middle of Ponyville, he'll probably kill somepony by accident. When she caught up with him, which was only a few seconds at his speed, she could see tears streaming down his face, he looked tired, as if he hadn't had any proper sleep for weeks.

She was just about to try and stop him in his tracks, when a familiar purple pony appeared in the distance. 'Darn it, what's she doin' here?' Applejack thought to herself. As them and Twilight came closer and closer together, the latter began to notice what was happening, she saw Applejack and a strange figure, who was stumbling about like a drunkard, she increased her pace, trying to get a closer look at the strange being that was staggering towards her. Applejack wondered what Twilight would make of the situation, would she freak out and run, or try and hook John up to some scientific equipment and study him? She was about to find out, as Twilight came to a halt a few feet in front of her and John, while she slowed down and stopped in front of Twilight, looking worriedly at her, John just kept on stumbling down the road.

"Who's that?" Twilight asked inquisitively, watching John make his was along the dusty pathway.

"He just appeared outta nowhere in my barn, says he's from another world or somethin'" Applejack replied, it sounded rather bizarre when she said it out loud, it was very bizarre after all. "He was fine last night, but now he's gone all weird, started mumblin' some mumbo jumbo and he don't look too good neither." Twilight looked more confused than ever.

"He can talk?"

"Oh yeah, talks, walks an' everything, says he came from some war in some place."

"A war? There's a war?"

"I don't ever know what a war is!" Applejack said exasperatedly, but Twilight looked especially worried.

"They used to have wars here a long time ago, ponies would kill each other en masse simply because of a difference of opinion." She explained, the sadness evident in her tone.

"Hang on a second, he's getting' away!" Applejack went back to chasing after John, who had made some considerable progress while the two ponies talked, he was staggering even more and made more side to side movement than he did forwards. Both ponies caught up to him after half a minute, and Twilight looked into his eyes, seeing if she could understand what was wrong with him.

"He looks pretty ill." She said, slightly clinically.

"I can tell that, thanks."

"We should get him to my place, I can look up how to deal with war sickness."

"War sickness? Is that a thing?"

"I've no idea, I haven't really read up much on wars." Both ponies managed to guide John with little nudges toward Twilight's library, luckily, no other ponies seemed to be up and about so early.

Once inside, Applejack carried him off to the spare bed, carefully placing him inside. He was now sweating profusely, and his rantings were getting weaker. Twilight, however, hurriedly used her magic to locate as many war books as she could find.

"Aha! _Wars and Wounds: Your Guide to the Injuries and Illnesses of War_." She recited, reading off the front cover of the book. She quickly flipped it open and turned to the index. "Applejack, what was he like before he wandered off?"

"Like I said, he was talkin' a load of nonsense, almost like he was telling about something, but missin' bits out." Applejack replied, while placing a damp cloth on John's forehead, trying to stop the sweating.

"And?"

"And he was staring off into nothin', and quakin' in his boots." Twilight mumbled to herself what Applejack had said, trying to find an entry that fit the specification.

"Aha! PTSD!" She cried, flipping to the page with the entry on. "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder," she recited, "when a pony sees or is a part of events unimaginably horrific, he or she may suffer from this illness, symptoms include reliving memories of the incident, sometimes making light of the situation and expressing vocally what they had seen. Victims are subject to erratic or abnormal behaviour and may be a danger to themselves and others."

"Did you find it?" Applejack called from upstairs, where she was still having no luck getting John to calm down.

"I think so, give me a minute." Twilight replied, going back to reciting the book passage. "Victims will usually not show signs of this illness for a few days after they are withdrawn from the scene, however, sometimes the illness can onset only one day after. To cure PTSD, the victim needs a considerable amount of rest, and needs to be accompanied at all times, as loneliness can easily cause them to relive the past. With proper care, victims can be cured enough to not be dangerous mere days after the onset."

"So... We just have to stay with him an' make sure he don't get too restless?" Applejack inquired, slightly annoyed that she'd have to miss precious working time on the farm.

"Don't you need to be working on the farm, it is harvest season, after all." Twilight explained.

"Well, if the poor guy needs my help, I'll make the time."

"I can stay with him, I'd be in here studying most of the time anyway." Twilight offered, receiving a gracious smile from the other pony.

"Well that'd be might fine of you, Twilight, I'll be sure to check in as much as I can and lend a hand." With that, Applejack exited the tree and made her way back to the farm.

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><p><strong>Well, I wasn't expecting to weave this into the storyline, but it's a nice way to explain his calmness last chapter, if I do say so myself. Please leave a review, I'll try and reply to as many as I can and I'll of course read them all.<strong>


	3. Snap Out Of It

**Sorry I didn't manage to crank another chapter out yesterday, I told myself that I'd get them out daily, and promptly had a severe case of the mondays. Anyway, here's the new chapter.**

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><p>It had been two days since John had been left in the care of Twilight Sparkle, who had wasted no time in both attempting to cure his PTSD, and in studying him, trying to discern exactly where he came from and how it came to be that he was in Equestria. She sighed, exhausted, his constant incoherent ramblings and the fact that he had hardly slept in two days meant that she was kept up well into the night. It was fortunate that she didn't have Spike to deal with at the moment, who was in Canterlot on royal business.<p>

The fact gave her little respite, however, she had been studying hard and yet still was no closer to finding any information on the man. She was especially intrigued by the number of different weapons he carried, on was long and thin, with a few appendages on it. Another was L-shaped, and quite heavy, a hammer perhaps? The third was obviously a knife, but much larger than most knives, it was sharp as a sword on one edge and serrated on the other. The final weapon was a round green ball with a metal top, it had a ring sicking out of it and a lever attached to the side. Of course Twilight made every effort not to fiddle with them, who knew what they could do if improperly handled.

John still lay in bed, the cold sweat he had broken out in was still going and he still mumbled incoherently occasionally. Twilight had written down what she could understand of these rantings, but they didn't seem to make any sense. Of course, many of the words held no meaning to the ponies of Equestria. What she could definitely conclude, however, was that John had been though his fair share of battles, and seemed to be the worse for ware as a result.

A loud knock came from the front door, breaking Twilight from her thoughts. She opened the door to see a concerned looking Applejack standing there.

"Hey Twilight, is John still here?"

"Of course he is, he hasn't even got out of bed the last two days." Twilight let Applejack into the library, closing the door behind her.

"You didn't tell anyone he was here did you?"

"Nope, and let me tell you, it was damn hard trying not to let anyone inside, especially Pinkie Pie." Twilight exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

"Yup, that's Pinkie alright!" Applejack laughed, picturing the image in her head. She soon remembered why she was there and trotted up the stairs, stopping next to the bed where John lay. He was pale, as if he'd been physically ill for weeks. 'The poor guy must have been through some terrible stuff' she thought to herself, carefully adjusting the covers that were wrapped around him.

The movement must have woken him slightly, because he fidgeted a little, Applejack stood perfectly still, not wanting to wake the sleeping man. I was too late though. He opened his eyes very slightly, looking at Applejack. His vision was blurry, and he could barely make out the shape of the figure standing over him, his head pounded and he felt like he was going to be sick.

"Nile?" He whispered, barely audibly. His throat sounded dry as a bone and he was so weak the one word took a large amount of strength to speak. "You're alive?"

"That's right." Applejack replied kindly, she wasn't sure who Nile was, but she wasn't going to put his hopes out just yet. John thought for a second and grabbed his head with both hands, his head throbbed as he strained to remember.

"No... No, Nile you're dead." He said, much louder this time. "I tried to save you, I really did, but you're still dead!" He was practically shouting now. Applejack took a few steps back away from the bed, just as Twilight came up the stairs to see what all the commotion was about.

"John? You ok?" Applejack asked, her voice held a mixture of concern, confusion and fear.

"Nile! Where are you!" He called, his voice reverberating throughout the house. "NILE!" He staggered out of the bed, and down the stairs. "Nile! I gotta save Nile!" John threw the door open and stumbled outside, the sun made his headache utter agony, but he didn't care. He walked straight out the door and into the town, shouting for Nile all the while. Applejack and Twilight followed hot on his heels, hoping to God that on one would hear him, which was very unlikely.

Before long, most of Ponyville could hear John's screams, most ponies were fearful of this strange creature, and ran in the opposite direction of him. One particular pegasus, however, was sightly intrigued, and flew down from the cloud where she perched to see what was going on. Rainbowdash stood in front of the man, hovering backwards slowly, matching his pace exactly.

"Hey, you ok there?" She asked, receiving no answer. "Hey, I'm talking to you." She said more firmly, tapping John on the forehead gently, gently for Rainbowdash, anyway. John reacted to this, looking up at the turquoise pegasus. He stared into her eyes, and she stared into his. She saw in his eyes all the horror he had endured, it was as if his soul had been torn out, and replaced only with anger, terror and panic. He suddenly bent double, clutching both his head and stomach. Rainbowdash backed off a foot or so, worried.

"Nile... Nile... Help me Nile, find me..." John whispered, falling down to one knee, staring at the ground. He stayed still for a few seconds, the only sound being the quiet wisp of wind and his short, sharp breaths. He and Rainbowdash stayed there, neither of them moving, until John was violently sick on the floor. She recoiled in disgust, the smell nauseating her.

"Ugh! That's disgusting!" She complained, but John took no notice, he simply stood back up, staggering slightly less, and stared at Rainbowdash.

"Nile?" He asked, getting only a confounded look in return. "Nile!" Rainbowdash was thoroughly confused now, who was Nile? John didn't give her time to ponder the question long, as he grabbed both of her front hooves with his hands, she could feel him trembling. "Nile, it's me, Marsh, John Marsh?" He said, half excited, half sad.

"Get off me!" She shouted, trying her hardest to pull away from his iron grip, with no luck. He simply laughed weakly, gripping tighter. "Get off!" She yelled, kicking him hard in the chest with both hind legs. The kick send him flying a couple of feet into the wall of a building, he hit it with a dull thud. For a few seconds, he simply sat there, unmoving. Rainbowdash was a little afraid that she'd badly hurt him. "Uhh, you ok? Hello?" She asked tentatively, John looked up slowly.

His head throbbed worse than ever, and his back washed over with intense pain, but somehow he felt much clearer than before, as if he'd been in a dream and suddenly jolted awake. He slowly looked around, feeling his face, he checked he was actually awake. Either he'd smoked some real hardcore shit, or he was really in a land with talking and flying multicoloured ponies.

John tried to stand up, but his back protested angrily, refusing to budge and sending a violent wave of pain straight up to his brain. It wasn't broken at least, he knew that much, but it certainly wasn't fully functional. He tried to stand again, failing again. Looked like crawling would have to do, he slid off the wall and tried to crawl a few feet on his hands and knees. He managed three or four feet before keeling over, panting. Suddenly, he felt a pair of hooves lifting him onto his feet, he finally managed to stand, his back still hurt like hell, but he endured the pain. Standing before him were Applejack and Twilight, both looking thoroughly concerned, and Rainbowdash was behind them, looking thoroughly confused.

"Who's Nile?" Rainbowdash asked abruptly. John's expression fell as he heard the name.

"Nile," He sighed, "Is, or was, rather, a soldier I fought with. He signed up after I was drafted, poor kid had no idea what he was getting into. One day, when we were out on patrol, we got attacked by a bunch of those Vietcong bastards. Nile got shot in the chest and leg, I tried to save him, but he died pretty soon after he got hit." A single tear rolled down John's cheek as he recounted the events, all the ponies looked sadly at him as he spoke. "He was my best friend, I don't think I'll ever come to terms with his death, it was too quick, too violent. He was in so much pain, so was I."

Twilight appeared as if she was about to cry as John retold the story, Applejack could scarcely believe that something like that was possible, and Rainbowdash didn't even know what to think. All four of them just stood in silence for a few minutes, no one knowing what to say. Finally, Applejack piped up.

"John... Would you like to stay with me tonight?" She asked slowly, not wanting to scare him out of the offer.

"I'd like that." He said thankfully, both him and the orange pony smiled at each other. Twilight and Ranbowdash took the hint and left the two silently. As the sunset bathed Ponyville in a brilliant orange glow, John and Applejack made their way back to the farm.

The sunset had all but faded by the time they made it back to Applejack's farm house, luckily, no one was around at the moment, so Applejack opened the door and beckoned John in. They both tip toed up to her room, just in case someone was asleep in the house. Applejack closed the door behind her and flopped onto her bed. It was a double bed, with chequered sheets and plain white pillows. John sat beside her on the bed and removed his combat boots, placing them carefully underneath the bed frame.

"Sorry it's not that big, it's only for me usually." She whispered as she slipped under the sheets, John nodded and lifted off his olive drab army shirt, revealing an impressive muscular build. Applejack couldn't help but catch a cheeky glance, or two. John didn't notice, however, and simply pulled the covers over half his torso, leaving the chest and arms exposed to the cool night air. He let out a relaxed sigh and felt more comfortable than he had felt in months, he also felt the tingle of soft, warm, short fur pressing up against his body. Was she snuggling up to him? He put the thought out of his mind and closed his eyes.

For the first time as far as he could remember his mind was clear, there were no thoughts of war, no recounts of the horrors he had faced in his previous life. Only one thing was in his mind, was it possible to fall in love with a pony?


	4. Nosy Pony

**Sorry about the long time between chapters, I've been feeling a it under the weather lately, luckily this one's extra long to make up for it, so please enjoy.**

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><p>As the first rays of sun poured through the curtains and birds chirped their merry morning melody, Applejack lay in her bed, far too comfortable to want to get up. She was awakened by the sudden realisation that she was in fact alone in the bed, and while this was usually to be expected, last night she had shared the bed with John, the Vietnam soldier transported to Ponyville only a few days ago. Bleary eyed, she slipped out from under the covers and flung open the curtains, letting sunshine spill into the room. It blinded her tired eyes a little, but she soon got accustomed to the light. She peered outside, looking for any sign of John around the farm.<p>

Sure enough, as she looked over to the bright red barn not too far from the house, she noted that the door was slightly ajar, meaning somebody was, or had been, inside. She grabbed her token cowgirl hat and made her way downstairs and out the door. Entering the barn, she saw John at the opposite end, he was hanging onto one of the beams above him, and lifted himself off the ground repeatedly. He had only his trousers and boots on, and a white headband which kept his short hair above the forehead. Applejack tried her hardest to avert her eyes while he worked out, not completely successfully, though.

"Ahem!" She cleared her throat loudly, alerting him to her presence, he was slightly startled by the sudden outburst, and dropped off the beam. Landing on the ground with both feet, he picked his shirt up, which seemed to have been washed, and slipped it over his torso. Applejack also noticed that he'd washed his face, which had harboured a sizeable amount of dirt and grime. With the newly cleansed look, she could make out his features much more and was especially surprised by the rough stubble that covered the lower part of his face.

"What's up?" He inquired, slightly confused at how early she was awake and out the house, a feeling which she shared.

"You're up early." Applejack stated, not really sure how to start the conversation.

"Yeah, I've got a lot of training to do if I'm ever going to get back to full strength." John answered.

"Uh huh." Applejack's mind seemed to be elsewhere, something that John didn't really pursue. "Well, I'd better let you get back to it." She said suddenly, making her way out of the barn and back into the house, John considered following her, but decided it would be best to just continue his work out.

About an hour later, Applejack was enjoying a fritter, apple of course, for breakfast. As she ate, she wondered just how long John planned on being out, perhaps he'd taken the opportunity to visit Twilight in town? Her questions were soon answered when the door swung open and the person in question strolled in, his forehead was covered in sweat, and both his fringe and the headband that held it up were soaked with the stuff. Applejack silently nudged a plate which held another apple fritter in his direction. With thanks he took the hint and sat down, the meal was really nothing special, but after moths living off meagre rations, it was the best tasting thing he'd eaten as long as he could remember.

Having finished her share of the meal, Applejack simply sat and watched John wolf down his, she took the opportunity to eye him up and down, noting many of his previously unnoticed features. His hazel eyes seemed a little less empty than they did two days ago, back when he was badly ill. His hands were cut in many places, and his face in a few. His shaggy brown hair looked like it needed a bit of a trim, but then again she had no idea when he'd last had a proper haircut. She also took the time to breathe in his scent, to her nasal palette, it was totally unique, but also strangely familiar. He smelled like the tangible stench of labour, mixed in with that of someone who's done things they'd rather have not.

John didn't really look up during the meal, so Applejack was pretty sure he hadn't noticed her all but staring at him as he ate. As he plopped the last bite into his mouth, he looked up at her, she simply smiled back from across the table, an expression they soon shared.

"Good?" She piped up after a few seconds of silence.

"The best." He replied, widening the smiles on both their faces, he leant back in his chair contentedly, sparing only a fleeting thought for anything of his previous life. Their silence was soon interrupted by a tell-tale bang from the outside, the same that had occurred when John and his long dead adversary had entered this world. Without thinking, John drew his pistol from it's holster and carefully opened the door, fully expecting to see a Vietcong or NVA soldier looking back at him.

He was, instead, pleasantly surprised to see a large green metal crate with 'US ARMY' emblazoned on the lid. Applejack was just as confused as she had been when she'd first met John, but he was rather excited at the appearance, if a little bamboozled. He took the lead in walking up to the crate, followed cautiously by Applejack. John took a little time to survey the object, checking for any signs of booby trapping, it was commonplace for captured supply crates to be primed to explode when opened by any unsuspecting troops.

Since everything seemed to be in order, John threw open the lid, the box was about a metre wide, and half a metre deep and tall, inside was an assortment of standard issue supplies.

"Let's see, ammo, meds," John began to recite what was in the crate as he sifted through its contents, "Oh you beauty!" He suddenly said excitedly, pulling out a small white shaving razor, such amenities could often become scarce in the jungle.

"What's that?" Applejack asked inquisitively, peering over John's shoulder.

"This," He replied, pointing at the razor with one hand, twirling it with the other, "is a razor." Applejack's expression went from inquisitive to plain confused.

"What in tarnation's it for?" She asked exasperatedly.

"Shaving." John replied clinically, thoughtfully stroking his rough stubble with one hand. "Getting rid of this." He continued, noting Applejack's continued look of confusion. She still didn't seem to fully understand, but he ignored this and went back to rooting through the crate. Before long he pulled out a sizeable grey box, with an array of switches and dials on the front. Having plundered all the crate had to offer, John closed it and placed the other box on top, flicking a few switches, the box began to emit a small crackling sound.

"Now what in the world is that?" Applejack asked, convinced John was pulling all this stuff straight from Narnia.

"It's a radio, we can use it to talk to people really far away." John stated factually, twiddling various knobs and switches, "Can't get the damn thing to work though." He didn't give up, he just kept on turning dials and flipping switches. After a couple of minutes Applejack got rather bored and headed back inside the house.

She made her way up the stairs and into her room, looking out the window she could see John, transfixed by the radio, but still having no luck repairing it. By now he'd taken the back panel off was was fiddling around with the insides. She sighed and turned back to the bed, sitting herself down.

After a few seconds, she looked to the floor and saw a small leather bound book poking out from under the bed, intrigued, she picked it up and opened it. There looked to be about 50 pages in the book, all but two were filled with messy handwriting, each page had a date on and it was clear that the book was some sort of diary or journal.

Applejack flipped to a random page and began to read.

_February 4th, 1968_

_We've been in Hue City for three days now, fighting the NVA. Mortars have been pounding our positions for hours, and I'm scared that one's gonna land right on my head at any second. We lost half our squad yesterday when a damn NVA tank reared it's ugly head, Soviet T-55, nasty son of a bitch, too. I swear Pvt Wesley was in pieces no bigger than a finger by the time it was done with him, and Cpl King was shot up by the mg, it ran over his head as we fell back, I'm almost certain he was still alive when it happened, poor bastard._

Applejack slammed the book shut, shuddering. She couldn't believe that John was still sane after what he'd been through. Slowly, she opened the book again and flipped through to the final entry.

_June 30th, 1968_

_I'm pretty damn sure this is gonna be my last entry here, we're surrounded by VC, and help isn't coming for an hour at least. We'll all be dead in half that time if we don't get a motherfucking miracle soon. We've already lost five men, three dead, two badly hurt, that leaves only three guys and me still fighting, against I don't know how many of the bastards, it must be over a hundred. If I'm the last one left, I'm saving my last grenade and I'm gonna take as many of the bastards with me as possible._

As she finished reading, Applejack heard familiar footsteps coming up the stairs, she quickly closed the book and placed it back where she'd found it. Just as she sat back up, John came into the room, closing the door behind him.

"John," She began, eliciting a slightly cautious look from him, "When you first came here, in the barn, you had that round thing in your hand. What was it you called it?"

"A grenade." John answered, sitting next to Applejack on the bed.

"What were you gonna do with it?" She asked abruptly, causing him to raise an eyebrow.

"Why do you ask?" Applejack picked up the diary from under the bed and showed John the entry she last read. As vague as his wording had been with the last sentence, by now he knew Applejack wasn't a dumb girl and that she could easily infer what he meant. "Grenades," He began, "Are meant to explode, killing anyone near by. I was going to use it to blow myself and as many of the enemy I could up." As he finished, he pulled the grenade from his bandoleer, looking at the weapon, glad he didn't have to use it after all.

Applejack took the grenade from his hand, replacing it instead with her hoof. John smiled and looked into her eyes as she smiled back. A few fleeting seconds passed before one of them spoke up.

"Y'know," Applejack began, "Twilight would be mighty interested in hearing all about you, she likes to know about stuff. Besides, I got a bit of work to catch up on, them apples ain't gonna buck 'emselves." She laughed, and left the room, placing the grenade on the bedside cabinet. John pondered what she had suggested for a minute, then decided on a plan of action for the day, he had meant to get rid of the body that still festered in the barn, to be frank it was a miracle that no one had noticed it yet. He decided to dump it in the forest, surely some type of animal would be interested in a veritable feast such as that.

And so he exited the house, deciding not to carry any weaponry save for his pistol, which he always carried on his person. He hoisted the body, which was now grey and had flies buzzing all around it, the stench was almost unbearable, but John carried the body all the way to the Everfree Forest, depositing in in a bush deep in the forest. The stench of rotting meat still clung to him, so before visiting Twilight he took a quick dip in the river, the water was refreshingly cool and a nice change from the harsh summer heat.

As he redressed himself, he tied a green bandanna around his forehead, which held his wet fringe out of his face. As short as his hair was, it did seem to have a tendency to drip into his eyes when wet. It was coming on for noon as he made his around the busiest part of the town, the detour was a slightly longer route, but John wisely thought not to attract too much attention. As he reached the tree where Twilight lived, he could hear muffled voices from inside, not wanting to pry, he simply ignored them and knocked twice on the heavy wooden door.


	5. You Weren't There

John knocked on the door to Twilight's library, a about five seconds passed before it squng open revealing a short purple and green dragon, who started up at him if amazement.

"I'm uhh, looking for Twilight." John said nervously, the dragon's stare unsettling him a little. The dragon didn't utter a word, he simply pointed in the direction Twilight was in. John thanked him and made his way inside, stopping a foot or so behind the purple mare.

"Not now Spike, I'm busy reading." Twilight said exasperatedly, not looking round from the book she was reading, John noticed that the book was one on the subject of war.

"I suppose the little guy's Spike?" He replied, causing Twilight to wheel around on the spot.

"Oh hi, yes, Spike's the baby dragon." She confirmed, rather perplexed that John had visited her. "Can I help you?"

"Oh, Applejack sugegsted that you might want to hear about me." John said, half nervous, half hopeful.

"Ooh, that would be so good, I could write my very own book about it!" Twilight screamed excitedly, while John simply stared out of the window behind her. Following his gaze, she saw a large crowd forming in the centre of town, all crowded round a very familiar looking turquoise unicorn. "Oh no, guess it'll have to wait, looks like Trixie's back again."

"Trixie?" John raised an eyebrow.

"Magician, loudmouth, all round annoyance." Twilight listed, the both of them amking their way out the door and into the crowd. As they reached the front Twilight recognised her gaggle of friends staring at the stage. "Hey, is this what I think it is?" She asked of the group, all of whom nodded in confirmation. As they looked towards Twilight three of them gasped in surprise.

"What's that?"Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity all said in unison, staring at John, who simply stared back.

"This is John, I'll explain later." Twilight replied, still concentrating on the frankly feeble magic show unfolding before them.

"The great and powerful Trixie is back once more! With a new power!" The unicorn called out to the crowd. "I now have the abilities to delve deep into anypony's mind and show for all to see what they have seen, and done!" She continued, all the ponies watching seemed perplexed by this new unheard of power. "So, who wants to be the first to have their memories revealed for all to see?" She called out, many of the ponies physically backing off. Three ponies, however, stared at John, his eyes darted between them, he knew exactly what they wanted, but he was afraid for them to see some of the things he'd seen.

As he pondered it, a forceful nudge in the spine caused him to taken an involuntary step forward.

"What are you?" Trixie cried, staring at John.

"Hello to you too." He replied sarcastically.

"No matter, my magic is not restricted to ponies and unicorns, come, and let us see what you have seen." John walked onto the stage and sat in the chair next to Trixie, her horn lit up with a magical glow, which created a magical screen above the stage, John watched as the image on the screen flickered with his memories, images flashed by as Trixie concentrated the magic on one point in his life. In his mind, he suddenly remembered the battle of Hue City, he knew exactly what was about to happen. The screen suddenly stopped on one image, John and his squad of five other men were running down a war-torn street, the sky was bathed in a hellish orange glow as much of the city was burning to the ground.

The men stopped in a crater and John activated his personal radio, it crackled and fizzed to life, and faint voices could be heard. Suddenly, a clear voice came through the radio from central command.

"Sergeant, we need you to take your men two clicks north, there's an enemy AA emplacement that needs to be dealt with. Also, be advised that two Phantoms loaded for bear are on station should you need them, napalm's the order of the day, Sergeant, now get moving."

"You heard him, guy's we're headed north." John called out to his men, they all nodded and moved up the street. This particular street seemed to be free on any NVA, for a while, anyway. As they came to the middle of the street, enemy soldiers poured into it at the end they neede to get to.

"Sarge, NVA!" Nile called out, all the men took cover behind chinks of building and an upturned car, it seemed it was the six of them versus about thrity enemies, John knew exactly what to do. He grabbed his radio and spoke into the reciever.

"CenCom, we need a napalm drop at co-ordinates 715, 674, East to West, confirm?"

"Confirmed, Sergeant Marsh, keep your heads down it's coming in hot." Bullets whizzed all around John and his men as he conversed with the radio, the American troops began returning fire, dropping one or two of the NVA as they waited for the drop. Before long, they could hear the tell tale sound of a jet engine approaching, and within a few seconds, the F4-C fighter jet flew overhead, dropping a single well placed cluster bomb onto the NVA soldiers, the bombs exploded in flames, hurrendously painful screams racked the air as the entire enemy force was coated in the burning, sticky substance.

John and his men broke cover and walked down the street, finishing off any NVA that hadn't been totally annihilated by the airstrike. As they turned the corner, they saw the AA emplacement they were taked with removing, only a small Vienamese garrison was operating it, with the element of surprise, this would be an easy victory.

The men all kept their heads low as they approached the AA gun, luckily, all the NVA soldiers were concentrating on the skies, spotting Huey choppers and firing on them. The men took up positions a few feet from the gun and aimed their weapons, John signalled to them to hold fire and pulled the pin of a frag grenade, as he let it fly, the spoon flew off it, and it landed slap bang in the middle of the enemy group. Before they could do anything about it, the grenade exploded, tiny shards of shrapenel embedding themselves in anything and everything within a five metre radius, which included most of the gun operators, one survived unharmed, and grabbed his AK47. Before he could fire on the Americans, John put two bullets in his chest and one right through his eye, killing him instantly.

The men walked up to the gun, making sure all the NVA were dead at the scene. John placed a satchel charge in one of the seats of the AA gun.

"Take cover boys!" He shouted before pulling the cord, all the men sprinted away from the gun, taking shelter in a nearby building. After a few tense seconds, an almighty bang was heard and dust fell from the cieling, signifying that the gun was well and truly destroyed. John grabbed his radio once again and spoke into it. "The AA's not gonna be a problem anymore command, further orders?"

"Good work Sergeant, you're to maintain position and wait for evac, we've got a chopped coming to pick you and your men up is five minutes."

"Roger that, we're holding up at the site." John confirmed, looking round at his men, two of them were keeping watch out the door and windows. The rest were sat up against walls and on chairs, obviously exhausted from days of fierce fighting.

The image began to flicker again as Trixie tried to focus on a different memory, apparently getting bored of this one. Soon enough, the image focused again and approximately twenty men could be seen through John's eyes, plus an M48 Patton tank, all were on patrol through the jungle, keeping watch for any Vietcong that might have been hidden in the jungle. After a few minutes they emerged into a clearing, another patch of jungle could be seen about a hundred metres down the road. John was understandably nervous of the dark jungle, it seemed the perfect hiding spot for a tree sniper to reside in.

He looked around, vast mountains could be seen in the distance and the ground shook with the rumble of the mighty tank next to him. Looking down at the road, he saw a sizeable bulge in the ground that was quite obviously not natural, it was all too late though. The tank rolled over the bulge, and a massive explosing knocked most of the men, John included off their feet. As he stood up again, he saw the front portion of the tank had a gaping hole and the engine was of fire, diesel oil spilled from various split fuel lines as the tank lay in ruins. Suddenly, muzzle flashes lit up the dark jungle ahead, causing bullets to whistle all around. Eight of the twenty men were hit and either killed or wounded from the first barrage of gunfire. Three more had been incapacitated by the explosion earlier.

As a soldier in from of him was hit in the leg and then the chest, he fell onto his back, screaming in pain.

"Nile!" John shouted as he grabbed the soldier by the shoulders and went to drag him behind the ruined tank. Before he could, however, he fell to the ground also, and a severe pain shot up from his right flank. He looked down to see blood pouring from a bullet wound just above his right hip. He gritted his teeth and stood up one more, yelping in pain as he did so. Again, he grabbed Nile by the scruff of the neck with one hand, clutching his own bullet wound with the other. He just about managed to drag Nile behind the tank before collapsing to the ground himself. His vision began to go blurry and the sounds around him were severely dulled.

After what seemed like an eternity, two Huey choppers arrived on the scene, one was havily armed with chainguns and rocket pods, and one was emblazoned with a red cross, the former began to fire upon the attacking Vietcong, while the later landed and several medics got out, one running straight for John.

The screen suddenly closed, John hardly realised how much he'd been through on those two days alone. All the ponies were speechless, not with the power that Trixie wielded, but with the sheer amount of horror John had been exposed to, and indeed had caused. Trixie silently exited the ecene to her caravan, which was totally out of character, John simply sat, staring at the ground, he'd never imagined in a million years that watching those memories back would be so hurtful, especially Nile's death. He stood up slowly, and walked off toward Applejack's farm, tailed by a nervous Applejack.

It was nearing evening by the time Applejack made it back to her farm, by now she'd lost sight of John and she simply assmued that she would find him somewhere nearby. Sure enough, as she opened the door to her bedroom, she saw him laying on her bed, unmoving. His bandanna was pulled down over his eyes and his breathing was shaky and irregular. As she walked up to the bed, she could see the remnants of a few tears on his skin.

John was well aware that Applejack was both in the room and very close to him by now, but he didn't show it. He felt the bed sag slightly as she silently lay next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. The contact was extremely comforting, and he subconciously leant in to it. And they just lay there, neither of them knew for how long, but eventually they both fell asleep in each other's embrace.


	6. Meet The Ponies

**Wow, is this really the 6th chapter? Anyway, I've been getting a lot of people saying that the story is progressing a little too fast. Tends to happen with me, anyway, the next few chapters will just be fluff and general stuff before I finish with a big three or four chapter finale.**

* * *

><p>John awoke on another day in his new world. He sat up in the bed, noting the lack of an orange pony sharing it with him. The sun wasn't too high in the sky yet, so she shouldn't have started work already. The pony in question suddenly threw the door open, breaking his thoughts. She looked a little nervous as she stepped into the room.<p>

"John," She began, " The whole family's downstairs, I uh, want you to meet 'em." She finished, looking at him hopefully. He simply smiled and nodded.

"Sure, how many are there?" He asked.

"Four, including me." Applejack led him down the stairs where the whole Apple family were stood in the living room, Granny Smith in a rocking chair, Big Mac stood stoic as ever, and Applebloom stood there nervously, she wasn't good with meeting people, especially people who'd killed others in her presence. Not that she'd had much experience in that field.

Applejack went into the living room first shortly followed by John.

"Everyone, this is John, he's been staying with u-, uh, me, for a few days now." She announced, warranting confused looks from the entire family. It took a few seconds before one of them spoke up, that one being Big Mac.

"Eyup!" He said, which seemed to be the only thing he ever said.

"Hey then youngster." Granny Smith greeted John, assuming he could talk back.

"Ma'am." He replied courteously.

"Well Applejack, looks like your friend leaned his manners well."

"Heh, he sure did Granny." Applejack beamed, looking up at John. Granny Smith stood up off her chair and walked up to him, whispering into his ear, but loud enough that Applejack could still hear.

"Go on son, take that one to the rodeo, know what I mean." John practically jumped out of his skin, Applejack blushed furiously and suddenly found her hooves very interesting. John simply shuffled his feet and looked around awkwardly.

"Any- ahem, anyway," Applejack continued nervously, "That was Granny Smith, an' this is Big Mac."

"Eyup!" Mac said once again, extending a hoof. John took the hoof and shook it, not really sure what to make of the colt, but that was the effect Mac had on most.

"An' finally, we have Applebloom, but you two have already met ain'tcha?" She finished, looking at her little sister. Applebloom nodded slowly, looking even more nervous than before. "Say hello." Applejack whispered irritably.

"Hello." Applebloom half said, half mumbled.

"Hello." John replied, not wanting to make the filly more nervous than she already was. Applejack was a little confused by her sister's demeanour. Sure she didn't make new friends immediately, but she was never this nervous around a new face, perhaps it was just the fact that John wasn't a pony. John looked to Applejack, who shrugged and raised an eyebrow.

"Anyway, Mac shouldn't we start work already?" Applejack asked of her brother.

"Actually sis, it's your day off, don'tcha remember?" This was the longest sentence Mac had said all day. Applejack cast her mind back, she couldn't remember if this was a day off for her, but it Mac said so then it must be.

"Oh, okay then." She turned to John, "Do you, wanna go to town and maybe get a bite to eat?" She asked eagerly.

"That sounds good." John smiled, and the two set off out the door, leaving Mac to work on the farm, and Granny Smith asleep in her chair.

As they walked down the road from Sweet Apple Acres to Ponyville, John took in more of the scenery than he had done on previous walks down this road. There were apple trees as far as the eye could see, it was a wonder that the whole orchard was maintained by only two ponies. Far off in the distance, a mountain of epic proportions could be seen, with what looked to be a castle hanging off the side. Looking the other way, a smaller mountain was miles away, this one was slightly taller, but had a much smaller base.

"Hey, we're here." Applejack said abruptly, he must have been spaced out for a while, because they were already in the centre of Ponyville. "You alright, sugarcube, you've been awful quiet." She looked alightly concerned.

"Fine, just fine." John replied. They sat at a nearby table and waited for the waiter.

"Don't suppose you even know what kinda money we use round here." Applejack said, looking over the table at John, who just shook his head.

"No idea, and unless it's dollars, I don't have any." Applejack chuckled slightly.

"Don't you worry sugarcube, I gotcha covered." She smiled, "An' it's bits we use here, gold bits."

"Bits? Sounds a little vague." John mused, raising an eyebrow.

"Well they buy you stuff an' that's all I need to know." Applejack laughed. At that moment a waiter handed her a menu, pausing to stare at John for a moment or two before handing him one too, when prompted by a cleared throat on John's part.

"I get the distinct feeling that people are still a little frightened of me round here."

"People?" Applejack said quizzically, John laughed at his mistake.

"Ponies, I mean." He chuckled, this new world would take some getting used to.

"Aww they don't mean no harm, sugar, they're just not used to you yet is all." She assured him, wondering if he felt a little overwhelmed. "Anyway, you sure you're ok with all this, you're not gonna go an' try to hug Rainbowdash again are you?" She chuckled, referring to his breakdown only a few days before, something which wasn't too fresh in John's mind.

"Who?" He raised an eyebrow, racking his brains for a 'Rainbowdash'.

"Rainbowdash, blue, wings, rainbow mane." Applejack listed Rainbowdash's physical qualities, as he remembered, John mouthed a silent 'oh'.

"Oh you mean THAT pony, yeah, I think I'll give her a wide berth for a while." He chuckled, his brief encounter with the bashful pegasus clearing slightly in his head.

"She ain't all that, she's just a little rough and you came on pretty damn strong." Applejack defended. Suddenly a realisation dawned on her. "Hang on a sec, do you even eat the same food as us?" She asked, John cast an eye over the menu in front of him.

"Hay, nope. Daisy, no. Daffodil sandwich, sandwich yes, daffodil, no." He listed, the menu looking more and more unappealing. "Gemstones, who eats gemstones?" He looked up to Applejack, thoroughly confused.

"Dragons, we get a couple of juniors through here occasionally, but it's mainly Spike round these parts."

"Spike? The pint-sized purple guy?"

"That's the one." Applejack laughed, she never really thought about just how short Spike was, since he was mostly on Twilight's back when they met. "You've met him?"

"Once, we didn't talk. Well, he didn't utter a word, I was kinda afraid he couldn't speak or something."

"Heh, yeah he ain't the friendliest guy around here, not that he's bad or anythin' like that." John went back to scanning the menu.

"Apple pie, yes, that's one." He smiled, at least there was one option so far, "Grass, nope. No, no, nope. Apple pie it is I guess." He chuckled as he closed the menu, he should have known that ponies wouldn't eat the same stuff as him.

"Heh, come a few weeks from now an' you'll be sick of the sight of them apples." Applejack joked, the both of them sharing a laugh.

"Yeah, I'm sure I will." John agreed, making a mental note to kill and cook something sometime soon. Just then the waiter returned with a notepad.

"Madam, your order?" He asked.

"Uhh, I guess I'll have the Daisy sandwich, with grass juice." She replied, looking towards John as she finished.

"And, for the... Gentlecolt." The waiter seemed hesistant referring to John, which was understandable since he was an entirely new species.

"I'll have the apple pie, and just water please." He said, the waiter collected their menus and disappeared once again.

"So, you never did tell me why you were fighting." Applejack started the new conversation rather abruptly, like she had been thinking about it for a few minutes.

"Because I had to." He answered simply.

"What do you mean 'you had to'?"

"I was drafted, conscripted, if I refused to fight they would have sent me to jail." Applejack was rather shocked that someone could be put in a dliemma like that.

"Who made you do that?" She asked, still in mild shock.

"The government, they needed soldiers and the moajority of people were opposed to the war so they had to resort to conscription." He explained, making it seem much more nonchalant than it really was. "Which reminds me, who runs this place anyway, is there a king or a president or something?"

"Well, there's the mayor of the town, then there's Princess Celestia. She raises the sun each morning an' Princess Luna raises the moon at night." She explained.

"What, it doesn't just happen?" John asked.

"Of course it don't just happen, why would it just happen." Applejack raised an eyebrow, confused.

"Well where I come from, the sun just rises on it's own, and the moon." He explained, causing Applejack's eyebrows to both raise now.

"An' I suppose the weather just 'happens' too, does it?" She joked, chocking on her own laugh when John nodded.

"Yeah, why, does someone make it happen here too?"

"Exactly, that's what the pegasus ponies are for, they control the weather." As Applejack explained, the waiter returned with two plates, he set them down in front of the two diners.

"Enjoy your meal." He said robotically before departing. Applejack picked up the sandwich and took a sizeable bite, chewing happily.

"Just a sec." John said, digging around in his utility belt, the pouch on the back held what he was looking for. He found it and pulled out a metal fork.

"What in Equestria is that?" Applejack eyed up the implement, it looked quite dangerous to her.

"It's for eating with." John replied, stabbing a portion of pie and plopping it into his mouth.

"Uh huh." Applejack sounded quite nervous all of a sudden, she was concerned that it was another weapon in John's arsenal. She relaxed a little as he kept eating with it.

"So, I suppose you farm apples?" He said, not wanting the conversation to be about him the entire time.

"Sure as sugar do, it's mighty fine work." She said proudly. John was about to speak up again when a small yellow figure sat at the empty seat of the table. "Applebloom, what are you doing here?" Applejack almost glared at her sister, she was enjoying the one to one time with John.

"Oh, sorry sis, it's just that I had an idea." Applebloom said, turning to speak to John. "Can you help me?" She asked, pulling her very best puppy eyes.

"Help you with what?" John asked, not wanting to let the kid down just yet.

"Well... Everypony in my class has their cutie marks and I want my cutie mark but Applejack says that I just have to wait for it to come eventually but I don't want it eventually," She took a deep breath, "I want it now!" John blinked a few times, trying to unpiece the information in his head.

"You uhh, want me to help with what now?" Applebloom sighed indignantly before hopping off her chair and pulling the hem of John's trousers. He just followed her tugging, turning to Applejack and mouthing a desperate 'help me'. She simply laughed and let Applebloom pull him off to wherever she was going.


	7. Good Music And Good Company

Applebloom dragged John a fair way, until they were in the middle of what seemed to be nowhere. She stopped as a small treehouse came into view.

"This," She said proudly, "Is the Cutie Mark Crusaders clubhouse!" She didn't give John a chance to reply as she led him up the ramp and inside. In the clubhouse were two similar sized fillys, one was orange and had a mess of purple hair, the other pure white with a carefully styled pink and pruple mane. "Girls, this is John, he's gonna help us get our cutie marks." She announced, while John couldn't hold his tongue any longer.

"Beg pardon, but I don't even know what a cutie mark is, let alone know how to get one." He explained, receiving saddened looks from the three fillys.

"But you still know stuff nopony else knows, right?" Scootaloo affirmed.

"Probably, but most of my... specialities aren't exactly suitable for kids." Applebloom stepped forward.

"But, we even found some stuff that looks like yours lyin' round." She explained, poining in the corner, where a small pile of military equipment lay, unsorted. John raised an eyebrow and went over to the pile, most of it wasn't remarkable at all. A few pieces caught his eye however.

Rummaging through the pile, John pulled out an M60 machine gun, complete with ammo belt and box, holding around 300 rounds. He also found another radio, this one wasn't designed for communications, instead it was simply a musical radio. He put it to one side and kept sifting through the pile, pulling out a few mags for his M16, one Colt .45 pistol magazine, and a pair of binoculars. The rest of the pile he wrote off as junk.

"Well, anything useful there?" Sweetiebell asked hopefully.

"Uhh, the binoculars might come in handy, the M60 seems pretty obselete right now. The radio however, might still have some battery left." He flicked the power switch and the radio crackled to life, playing the first song in the rotation, which happened to be a favourite of John's. The relaxing strums of an electric guitar began to fill the room as _Memphis Guitar Soul_ played. The three fillys had never heard music like this, Sweetiebell secided there and then she didn't like this kind of music, Applebloom found it quite alluring, while Scootaloo rather enjoyed the care free guitar instrumental play.

John slowly turned the dial on the radio, fast forwarding the song until the next came on, _Nirvana Express_, he continued turning the dial, _Sympathy For The Devil_ came and went, then _Fortunate Son_, _Enter The Ironman_, _Backbreaker_, _Village Strollin'_, _Rhythm Under The Skin_, _We Got The Power_, and finally, _Surfing Days_. Satisfied with the collection on the radio, John flicked it off and squng it over his back via the sling conviniently attached, he picked up the M60, attached the ammo box to the side clip and placed the extra magazines is pouches on his uniform. He made for the door but was stopped dead in his tracks by Applebloom.

"I though you were gonna help us get our cutie marks!" She said accusingly.

"I'm sorry, but I can't risk this stuff falling into the wrong hands, catch up to me tomorrow and I'll se if I can help you." He said caringly, almost as if he saw Applebloom as a second child.

"Alright then, but you bet I'll come find you tomorrow." Applebloom conceded, stepping aside. John walked out the door, downt eh ramp and towards Sweet Apple Acres. He would find a nice quiet tree and relax with some proper music, he planned.

It was about 3 O'Clock by the time he made it back to the apple orchard, he spotted a particularly comfortable looking tree not too far from the road. He paced the M60 and radio onto the soft grass and flopped onto it himself, propping his back againt the hard trunk of the apple tree. In the shade of the tree he could feel the cool breeze on his face, this place really reminded him of home, it was so nice to be here instead of the jungles of Vietnam.

John pulled his headband down over his eyes and flicked on the radio, twisting the dial anti-clockwise until he found a song he liked, _Enter The Ironman_, that one would do nicely. He brathed a contented sigh as the calming sounds of the flute began to fill the sweet orchard air, followed by some awesome guitar rifts.

* * *

><p>Applejack was just heading back to the farm, after her lunch with John was rather rudely interrupted, she stopped off at Twilight's library where her usual group of friends were all together. They had a great few hours and learned yet another important lesson about friendship, something Twilight would undoubtedly write a letter to Princess Celestia about.<p>

As she reminiced, she heard starnge music emanating from further up the road, in the middle of the orchards, slightly fased, she quickened her pace. She followed the music, which wasn't hard since it was coming from directly up the road. As she neared the source of the music, she saw a large metal object propped up against a tree, it reminded her of John's rifle, but it looke a lot bulkier and larger. As she got closer setill she could see the outline of a man sat up against the tree on the other side. She reached the tree and looked round it, indeed seeing John, and the source of the music, which was a grey box similar to the one John had tinkered with a few days ago. She cleared her throat loudly, but John didn't notice over the heavy guitar work of _Backbreaker_. She cleared her throat louder still, which kind of hurt it, finally, John turned down the volume of the radio and turned to look at the pony.

"What's up Applejack?" He asked as if nothing was amiss.

"What's that?" She asked, pointing at the M60 maching gun propped up against the tree.

"It's a machine gun, kind of like the one I had before, but bigger." He explained, not moving from his spot. Applejack walked round him until she was directly hin front of him, straddling his outstreched legs.

"An' that?" She asked again, poining at the radio.

"It's a radio, kind of like the one we found the other day, but this one only plays music."

"Where did you find these?" She asked indignantly.

"Well, when Applebloom took me to her clubhouse, turns out she'd found a bunch of equipment from my world lying about the place, so I figured it wasn't wise to leave a piece of deadly weaponry or a valuable piece of equipment in a kid's clubhouse, so I took them." He explained, halfway through his explanation the radio switched to _Rhythm Under The Skin_, a mixture of piano and trumpet accompanying his words.

"An' this is the kind of music your world has?" Applejack asked, sitting herself down next to John.

"Uh huh, what do you think?" He asked, hoping she liked it.

"It's different, not bad though." She smiled, in truth some of it reminded her of the sound of the guitar she so loved. "Is it all so... heavy, though?" She asked, John shook his head and tuned the radio to the 7th song, _Village Strollin'_, the soothing piano and flute mixture ashed over Applejack, somehow relieving the stress of the day. 'This is more like it' she thought to herself as she let out a relaxed sigh and visibly untensed.

"Better?" John asked rhetorically, he could already see how much she was enjoying the music. Applejack simply nodded and closed her eyes, she could think of nothing better right now than sitting in the apple orchard, summer wind blowing through her hair, with good msuic and good company. They sat in the rochard for a couple of minutes, letting the song play it's course, after an all too brief time it had finished, John thought about what similar songs there were on the radio, and tuned it to the 1st of the batch. He turned the dial and once again let the calm strums of _Memphis Guitar Soul_ play.

"John?" Applejack asked abruptly, receiving a low 'hmm' in return, "I've been thinkin', an' I thought I should say somethin'. I like you, John, not just as a friend, but I like different to other ponies, or men." John sat silently as Applejack spoke, although he thought soon she would be able to hear his heart thumping in his chest. "I guess what I'm tryin' to say is, ah shoot I'm not good at this mushy stuff..." Applejack's voice began to quaver a fraction and she looked nervous, she was afraid this would make her look unappealing to the battered war veteran, but in reality he though it made her look exceedingly cute. Applejack tried her best to continue, "I guess what I'm tryin' to say is, uh, what I'm tryin' to say... is tha-"

She was about to continue but was cut off by John pressing his lips up to hers, all thoughts suddenly drained from her head as she closed her eyes, getting lost in the kiss. John didn't care that it was with a different species, and neither did Applejack, the passionate kiss felt absolutely right to the both of them.

After a few seconds they pulled apart, Applejack had a cute smile on her face, as did John.

"I guess what I'm tryin' to say, John, is that I love you." She finished, no quavering, no nervousness this time around. John's smile grew upon hearing those three little words.

"Well, I suppose there's nothing for me to say except, I love you too Applejack." He replied, growing the smile on her face too. Their lips joined once again, Applejack pushing John onto his back and lying on top of him, still pressing her lips hard into his. Her fringe fell between their eyes, tickling John's nose a little. He brought his hands round Applejack's back and pulled her closer to him, so that their bodies were pressed together on the soft grass. They pulled apart once again after a considerable legnth of time, both of them were out of breath.

John used a single finger to push Applejack's fringe back into place, his touch lingering on her cheek. She leaned into the palm of his hand, savouring the contact. Neither of them anted to move, especially not since Applejack leaned her head on John's chest, feeling his elevated heartbeat on her cheek.

For what seemed like a eternity they just lay there, content in each other's embrace, afternoon turned to evening and the sky was once again bathed in a beautiful orange glow. John made a note of the time and the fact that his companion was now fast asleep. He carefully scooped her up in his arms, she wasn't too heavy, but she still wasn't exactly dainty. He carried her up the road and through the door to the house, laying her gently in her bed. He climbed in the other side and gave her a fleeting kiss before laying his head down for the night.

* * *

><p><strong>Wow, didn't I say last chapter that this would be only fluff, guess that went bloody well huh. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Be sure to leave a review, although you guys and gals have been fantastic reviewers anyway and I can't thank you enough!<strong>


	8. Taking Notes

Golden rays of sunshine burst through the crack in the curtains, waking John from his sleep. He yawned, turning over and seeing a peacefully sleeping Applejack, complete with contented smile, sleeping soundly before him. Her blonde hair flopped over her right eye, half concealing it, half not. John brushed the fringe behind her ear carefully, not wanting to wake the sleeping pony. He quietly got out of the bed and dressed himself, before he left the room he caught sight of the frag grenade, still sitting on the bedside cabinet. He picked it up and tossed it up and down a little, letting a soft sigh escape him as he did. He quickly put it back on the table with a dull thud and left the room, walking down the road towards the town.

Just then, he saw a familiar purple pony making her way up the road with a purpose, it was quite early still, especially for someone to be out and about like she was. John put the thoughts out of his mind as he walked down to road. Twilight Sparkle slowed her pace just before reaching him, giving a curteous smile as she did so.

"Hey John, can I ask a favour?" She asked as they reached each other, John nodding silently. "Ok, I've been thinking, and would it be alright if I wrote a book about you and what you do?"

"You want to write a book about the war?" He asked her, not sure if anyone would be interested in such a book.

"Sure, I could catalog some of your equipment too, with drawings and eveything!" Twilight found herself getting excited just thinking about the book. John found it odd that someone could get so worked up about a book, not to mention a textbook.

"Ok, we can do it now if you really want to." He said while making his way back towards the farm.

"Really?" Twilight asked, more excited than ever, "Oh thank you, this means so much to me!"

"Uh huh." As willing as he was to help out, John couldn't help but think that this attitude was soon going to get on his nerves. They both entered the farm house together, going upstairs. Twilight waited in the corridor as John entered the bedroom once again, greeted by a sleepy, but awake, Applejack.

"Mornin' sugar." She greeted groggily, sitting up in the bed a little.

"Hey, been awake long?" He asked while gathering up his M16 rifle and the M60 machine gun.

"'Bout since you left, what're you doin'?" She asked slightly suspiciously as John scooped up the two radios and his pistol.

"Well, Twilight wants to write a book about all this shit so I said I'd provide her my equipment." He explained, finally picking up the frag grenade and binoculars.

"Alright, well you two have fun with that." She said slightly mockingly, books really weren't her thing, "And, about yesterday," her tone dropped slightly with this.

"Please don't say it was a mistake." John almost pleaded.

"No no, I wouldn't have changed it for the world, I just wanted to say thanks, y'know, for a great evening." She assured. John smiled and kissed her softly.

"It was my pleasure." He tried to pull away but Applejack grabbed onto the scruff of his shirt, proloning the kiss as long as she possibly could. John chuckled as he finally managed to free himself, smiling as he exited the room. He closed the door behind him and turned to see Twilight, with the cheekiest grin on her face.

"What?" He asked, an equally cheeky smile crawling acroos his features too.

"Nothing, I'm not saying anything." She said, barely containing a laugh.

"Glad to hear it. I'm all geared up anyway, shall we?" He asked, motioning for Twilight to go ahead of him. They exited the house and walked down the road, a little slower this time on account of the sheer mass John was carrying.

"So," Twilight began, her voice sounding very gossipy all of a sudden, "you and AJ are... shall we say, involved."

"However did you guess?" John said sarcastically, shifting the weight on his back slightly.

"How long has this been going on?" She continued, determinded to milk as much information out of John as she could.

"Since yesterday evening."

"So, last night did you two, y'know?" She asked, John knowing exactly what she was getting at.

"No, we didn't."

"Can you?" Twilight added hastily, not entirely sure if John's anatomy was the same as a colt's.

"Depends, if that stuff works the same way over here as it does back home then yeah, I can." He made the motion with his hands, causing a heavy blush to rise up in Twilight's cheeks.

"Yeah, that's about it." She said awkwardly, avoiding John's gaze.

They didn't speak much more on the way to Twilight's library, she opened the door and walked inside, followed closely by John. He could see that she had a table set up in the middle of the room, which had some paper and a quill on it. He set the M16 and M60 down on the table, along with the radios and the grenade.

"So, what do you wanna know first?" John asked.

"Ok, umm, what's this?" Twilight prodded the M16 rifle, John picked it up and pulled the bolt back, letting it return forward with a mechanical clang.

"This is a rifle, it fires metal slugs at high speed." He removed the magazine and pulled a single cartidge out, handing it to Twilight.

"That's a bullet, the larger part is full of gunpowder, the smaller part is what gets fired." John did his best to explain in the simplest terms he could.

"What's gunpowder?"

"It's a chemical powder that propels the bullet, I've no idea what it's made up of though."

"Ok, how about this." Twilight picked up the frag grenade and eyed it up carefully.

"That's a fragmentaion grenade, it's full of gunpowder or something as well, but you're supposed to lob it at someone, and it'll explode, sending little sharp bits of metal all over the place." He placed the M16 back on the table.

"Sounds nasty." Twilight exclaimed, twiddling the ring pull.

"Yep, it'll rip a man to pieces if it's close enough." John remembered seeing a Vietcong getting both his arms torn off by a frag, he was still alive for a few seconds after too.

"Ok, so this is the same as the rifle then?" Twilight asked, looking closely at the M60 which was propped up by the bipod on the table.

"Sort of, it fires bigger bullets and it's a lot heavier, more designed for staying put and shooting a hell of a lot of bullets, as opposed to the rifle which is meant to be used on the move."

"Uh huh, do you have any of the things on you?" She asked, referring to the bullet.

"Yeah, it's that chain there." He picked up a long ammo belt and opened the M60's top, revealing the mechanics inside, which were quite bare. He placed the beld in the feed and flipped the top shut again.

"Ok, so we've done the rifle, the big rifle, the grenade, and what are these?" Twilight moved on to the two radios.

"Well, one of them is used to talk to people far away, and the other plays music."

"So like a grammerphone!" Twilight exclaimed, impressed with herself that she could relate.

"Sort of, but a lot more advanced." John switched the radio on, it crackled slightly, as John turned the dial, _Enter The Ironman_ began to play, beginning with a soft bassline and expanding out into some impressive flute playing. Twilight listened to the strange music, sort of entranced by it.

"It's, different." She said, not entirely sure what to make of it.

"In a good way?"

"In a different way." It wasn't like Twilight to be this enigmatic, but the circumstances weren't exactly normal.

John switched off the radio after a minute or so, as much as he liked the music, the same set of songs was beginning to grate.

"Alright, do you use more equipment, or is it just these?" She asked, wondering if there was more stuff lying around Equestria.

"No, no, the army uses a lot more equipment than this, and I mean a LOT more."

"So, what else do you use?"

"Well, for an infantryman like myself, mostly we use the rifle, but we have shotguns, which shoot about ten or twelve tiny metal balls in one shot, very nasty stuff. Then there's submachine guns, which are smaller versions of the rifle. Then we have sniper rifles, which are used to shoot people really far away. And finally I guess there's the flamethrower, which is exactly what it sounds like." John finished, Twilight was slightly in awe as she scribbled down everything he described.

"Uh huh, would you mind drawing these things for me, if it's not too much trouble." She handed John the quill and paper, and he obliged. His drawing skills weren't great, and they didn't hold a candle to Twilight's, but he did his best. He handed the paper back after ten minutes, on it were the pictures Twilight drew herself, and underneath them were some intricate diagrams of four different weapons, complete with extra drawings of the bullets they used.

"Thanks, this is great." Twilight said gratefully, something almost slipped her mind. "Oh, I almost forgot, before I met you, I found something odd near here, I'll go and get it." She trotted up the stairs, retrieving an item wrapped in brown paper, the item looked to be about half a metre long and a few inches thick. Twilight place dit on the table and unwrapped it. John was quite surprised to see an M79 grenade launcher sitting before him. He picked it up slowly, these things didn't have a safety switch on them and he definitely didn't want it going off in his hands.

He flicked the break catch and opened the tube up, sure enough, there was a golden-brown metallic object sitting snugly in the barrel. He pulled it out and saw that it was a 40mm high explosive grenade, unfired.

"So, do you recognise it?" Twilight asked.

"Sure do, this is a Thumper, or M79 grenade launcher." Twilight looked at it, intrigued.

"So, it fires these things?" She picked up the hand grenade from the table.

"Not really, it fires these." John showed her the 40mm grenade, "They're basically the same, except these get fired hundreds of yards and they explode when they hit something."

"Huh." Just then, a hurried knock came at the door, Twilight went over to it and swung it open, revealing her five best friends, all looking extremely worried. "What's wrong?" She asekd immediately.

"Nightmare moon's back." Rarity answered.


	9. Into The Fryer

"What do you mean she's back?" Twilight asked indignantly, not wanting to beieve what she heard.

"I meant what I said, Twilight, Nightmare Moon is back for some reason." Rarity reiterated.

"It's not just that, she's got a small army of minions!" Rainbowdash added.

"Well, the solution is simple, isn't it?" Twilight said, referring to the last time they defeated Nightmare Moon. All the other ponies nodded, and just in time too, as the aforementioned dark goddess and her subordinates appeared on the horizon, emerging from the everfree forest. The elements of harmony, them being the six ponies themselves, began to glow and emitted a magnificent rainbow beam, just like last time. Unlike last time, however, one of the minions evaporated into an amorphous dark blob and blocked the beam, causing it to fizzle out into nothing.

All the ponies were exhausted from the beam, but it remained futile. Nightmare Moon laughed, now she knew there would be nothing to stop her victory. Nothing except one strange creature, who stepped in front of the incapacitated ponies, M60 in hand.

"You," Nightmare Moon adressed John, her voice booming across the field, "I brought you here, so do you really think you can defeat me?" She laughed at the prospect.

"Why did you do it?" John asked, pulling the bolt on the M60 back, ready to fire.

"I wanted the guns, we were going to use them to conquer this land, you were... Collateral damage." She explained, angering John immensely.

"I'll show you some collateral damage!" He shouted, just as Nightmare Moon's troops charged at him. There had to be at least a hundred, but John knew he had ammo aplenty to dispatch them all. As they neared him, he stood fast and unmoving. The exhausted ponies could do nothing but watch John deal with the army that confronted him.

Just as the first enemy got within a hundred yards, John pulled the trigger, the M60 fired off round after round in quick succession, sticky, black blood sprayed from the minions as one by one they fell to the ground. All the ponies watched in awe as the machine gun tore deadly swathes through Nightmare Moon's army.

_Ten minions left_,

John kept firing, the recoil making his arms tired.

_Nine minions left_,

The barrel of the machine gun had steam rising from it, the constant firing making it white hot.

_Eight minions left_,

_Click!_ The sound no soldier liked to hear, John didn't skip a beat though. He dropped the M60 to the ground, pulling the M79 off his back and firing the one shot it held.

_Four minions left_,

The fourth to last minion was within arms reach of John, as it reared up, John pulled his combat knife from his belt, quickly thrusting it into the dark horse's belly. The minion screamed in pain as John then rammed the knife through it's eye, then he slit it's throat, spraying hot, black blood all over his face.

_Three minions left_,

The blood that adorned John's skin terrified the remaining minions, who faltered and began to run away. John wasn't about to let them go that easily, he drew his pistol and fired three shots in quick succession. The minions all screamed, one shot hit the first in the back of the head, killing it instantly. The second ripped through the base of the tail of the second minion, smashing it's spinal cord and crippling the back legs. The helpless minion tried its best to drag itself away, but to no avail. The final shot hit the third minion in the back left leg, causing it to tumble to the floor in utter agony. John wasted no time in catching up to the minion, he aimed his pistol at the head, pulling the trigger once more. Two down, one to go. John turned to the final, crippled minion and saw that no further action was necessary. The minion wasn't gping anywhere in a hurry, and it would most certainly be dead in a few minutes.

John looked over the battlefield, corpses were strewn about the field, some in varying states of dismemberment. He caught a glimpse of his adversary, Nightmare Moon, who was in utter shock. She never imagined that this kind of warfare could be so brutal. Shock turned to fear as the grizzled soldier walked purposefully towards her, pistol in hand. Just twenty paces away, he fired a shot, which ripped through Nightmare Moon's shoulder, her leg buckled as she screamed in agony. Another shot, this one in the chest, she felt her ribs crack and one of her lungs was practically destroyed by the high caliber round. A final shot, in the chest once again. Nightmare Moon fell to the ground, dying. Red blood poured onto the ground, staining her inky black coat.

John dropped the pistol and walked up to the dying creature, it was clear that it had mere moments to live. John stood over it menacingly.

"End it, just, end it." Nightmare Moon pleaded, wanting to be put out of the intense agony she suffered.

"Is that what you would have done, taken over this world and ended it?" John asked, almost patronisingly, "Well not on my watch." Nightmare Moon grimaced, malice flashing through her eyes.

"Well then, I'll end you!" She summoned the very last of her energy, her long black horn glowed a brilliant white, and launched a beam of pure white energy straight into John's chest. The energy quickly subsided, along with the last whisper of life from Nightmare Moon. As her head lolled, lifeless, John looked down at his chest, where an inch wide hole had been punched clean through it.

"That's not good." He said to himself, falling backwards onto the grass. The six ponies who watched the spectacle found the energy to run to him, as they gathered round, they saw the fatal wound in his chest. It looked as if the life was draining as John's eyes began to shut. Tears rolled down Applejack's face, although she knew there was nothing she could do to save the dying soldier.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Fluttershy asked desperately, tear were forming in her eyes as well now, John coughed, blood spraying from his mouth as the ponies grimaced.

"Not you, but I can." A familiar, regal voice came from behind Twilight, all the ponies turned to see Princess Celestia, fully renewed after being replaced by her now dead sister. Celestia pointed her long white horn at the wound, and golden energy began to spew from the tip, wrapping itself around John's chest. The ponies watched, astounded, as the energy transformed to flesh and bone, replacing that which was incinerated by Nightmare Moon's final attack. As the final wisps of energy formed the skin of his chest, John jolted awake. He looked around wildly, surrounded by ponies and stood over by a lage white unicorn, complete with flowing rainbow mane. He suddenly remembered about his chest, he brought his hand up to feel where he hole had been. He found instead nothing but a hole in his shirt, with a small ring of burnt fabric surrounding it.

"Welcome back." Celestia said confidently, while John was helped off the ground by Rainbowdash and Applejack.

"Thanks, and you are?" John said weakly, his chest was still sore and a few globs of blood remained in his throat and mouth.

"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria." The princess said elegantly.

"Sergeant John Marsh." John replied simply, soliciting a chuckle from Celestia.

"Yes I know who you are, Twilight sent me a very interesting report on you." Twilight Sparkle blushed slightly and looked away. John ignored this and continued the conversation.

"So... What was the business with the other thing?" He asked, gesturing to the bloodied remains of Nightmare Moon.

"That was my sister." Celestia said sadly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." John said equally sadly.

"I think her passing was not entirely untimely, a part of me thinks I could have saved her, but I know that she will always be this terrible creature, and never my beloved sister, Luna." John hummed in agreement, although he wasn't entirely sure what Celestia was talking about. "Now, I hope all of you can join me in Canterlot this evening, we have some very important business to discuss." All the ponies and John nodded, none of them knowing what this business involved.

Without further hesitation, Celestia then vanished into nothing, leaving the group standing in the middle of a corspe riddled battlefield.

* * *

><p>That evening, a carriage arrived for the six ponies and John, they boarded it and were whisked away to the capital of Equestria, Canterlot. It was dark by the time they reached the gatehouse, which had two white pegasus ponies wearing golden gilded armour gaurding it. The six ponies were allowed entrance, and led to the throne room. John, however, was held at the gate. He didn't know why, but he had a terrible feeling that this business would not end well for him.<p>

He waited for what seemed like an eternity before a third guard came from within the castle. John followed the guard through the decorated halls of the palace, the sheer size and gandeur was alien to John, but he contained his surprise.

As he entered the throne room, a sight that would haunt him for the rest of his days greeted him, Celestia stood in the middle of the room, a sorrowful look on her face. Applejack was sat on a cushion to the left of her, her face buried in her hooves. The sound of her sobbing tore John's heart in two. Rainbowdash and Rarity were doing their best to comfort Applejack, but to no avail. The other three ponies simply stood there, avoiding John's gaze. He walked into the room, stopping just before the princess.

"Sergeant Marsh, I must thank you for saving our land from the tyranny of my evil sister. But you must appreciate that our world is not meant for you, neither are you meant for it. Both you and the warrior spirit that revoles around you are far too dangerous for this peaceful kingdom. My sister brought you here by mistake, therefore it is my duty to return you to your own world." John said nothing, as shocked as he was to hear this, it wasn't entirely unexpected. "I'll allow you a minute to say your goodbyes." Celestia struggled to speak, she knew sending John back to Vietnam would most likely mean sending him to his death. John knew this too, but had come to accept the fact. He immediately turned to his right, where a tearful Applejack stared at the floor, not moving from her spot.

John approached her, kneeling down so that his face was level with hers. He couldn't speak, the gargantuan lump in his throat blocked any words that might have come out, he wouldn't know what to say, anyway. Instead, he took Applejack's chin ever so gently, and slowly brought his lips to hers, their final kiss only lasted a few seconds, but still they savoured every last moment of it.

Applejack couldn't find the will to say anything, she wanted nothing more than to speak a thousand words to the man before her, but she couldn't say one. John slowly untied the headband from his forehead, and instead tied it gently to Applejack's ear. She smiled slightly at the momento, which spoke more words than anything.

John silently stood back up, walking back to face Celestia.

"Are you ready?" She asked patiently.

"No." He said, bowing his head. Celestia took this as a sign to start the spell. Her horn glowed brightly for a few seconds before emitting a bliding flash. When the light subsided, Celestia stood before nothing, John had disappeared completely, and for good.

* * *

><p>John appeared in a small clearing, surrounded by jungle. He was back, and he'd never see Applejack again. Tears rolled down his face as he looked around. There was no way of knowing where he was, but he didn't care at this point, all he could think about was the face of an orange pony, blonde hair flopped over her forehead, beautiful green eyes staring back into his. He checked his belt and found his pistol, fully loaded and ready to fire. He drew it and looked at it, one thought occupying his mind.<p>

He pulled the hammer back, letting it click into position, and placed the gun flush to the side of his head. The cool touch of the metal was refreshing in the humid atmosphere, a breeze blowed through John's hair, rustling the trees. As he began to pull the trigger, John found a strange smell in his nostrils, he closed his eyes tight, trying to remember what it was. Soon, he remembere it as the unmistakable scent of... Apples.

_BANG!_


	10. Back From The Brink

**Ok, so I've been getting a lot of people wanting an extension to the story, and I enjoyed writing it so much I decided to continue, please enjoy it and review as always.**

* * *

><p>It had been only two hours since John had been whisked back to Vietnam by Princess Celestia, and subsequently shot himself. Applejack's heart was well and truly broken, she kept crying as she and Rainbowdash, who wasn't having much luck comforting her, headed back through Ponyville.<p>

"It'll be fine, we'll make Celestia see that it was a mistake to send him back, and she'll bring him back here." Applejack nodded weakly and sniffed, somewhat acknowledging Rainbowdash's logic.

They paused for a second just past Twilight's library, the mangled and bloodied corpses of Nightmare Moon's minions, as well as Nightmare Moon herself, still lay on the field. They stood there silently, remebering what had happened there earlier that day, and thinking what might have happened it John hadn't gunned down the dark minions. As they watched, some of the bodies began to dissolve into dark clouds of gas. They watched intently as more and more of the corpses turned.

Before long, the entire army was one great pulsating mass of dark energy. The energy slithered towards the leader, Nightmare Moon. It entered her body via the three holes John's pistol had made. Soon, in much the same way Celestia had healed John, it formed flesh and bone, replacing that lost in the battle. Nightmare Moon was fully healed, but did not rise from her spot, instead she herself evaporated into a cloud of dark energy, and slinked off to the Everfree forest.

Applejack and Rainbowdash looked on in shock, was Nightmare Moon back _again_? Had John's sacrifice been in vain? There wasn't time to find anyone else, so they rushed to follow the dark energy, determined to find out if Nightmare Moon was alive once more.

* * *

><p>Nightmare Moon returned once more to the castle she resided in before. 'Well that didn't work' she thought to herself, pondering what to do. Human technology still seemed the best way to vanquish her sister, and the Vietnam war was the bloodiest war in modern human times, she decided the same plan was best, she would just have to get rid of any more stray humans she picked up, and faster than last time. Raising her horn, she cast the spell once more, a blinding light emitted from the end of the horn, and not too far away a loud bang was heard, signalling that the spell had worked.<p>

"Excellent, although I really must work on getting it more precise." She said to herself, transforming once again into dark energy and slinking towards the scene where she had cast the spell.

As she neared the spot, she heard panicked shouting and gunfire. It was obvious whoever she had managed to transport weren't too friendly with each other, and there were a lot of them. She finally emerged from the trees into a large clearing, where four men dressed in similar green clothing to the one before were hiding behind some rocks, and at least ten other men, all dressed in tatty clothing were charging at them, firing weapons and screaming in an alien language.

"Sarge, we're outnumbered, what do we do?" One of the soldiers shouted, firing the same machine gun that had been used to defeat Nightmare Moon before.

"Keep firing, we'll whittle them down and pick off the survivors!" The sergeant shouted, reloading his M16 rifle.

Another soldier fired his weapon, which launced some indiscernable object at breackneck speed towards the enemy, the object exploded on contact with the ground. Two of the foreign soldiers were killed by the explosion, and one more was mildly injured. The final green clothed soldier also carried an M14 rifle, which fired slower but was a lot more powerful. He fired a short burst, the bullets ripping through an enemy's chest. Blood sprayed in all directions as the bullets penetrated the chest cavity of the screaming Vietcong.

Nightmare Moon stayed in her gaseous state, she would let the two forces wipe each other out before killing any survivors. As she pondered the plan, the soldier carrying the machine gun's helmet pinged off his head, followed by his while body going limp. A high caliber round had hit him dead in the skull, killing him instantly.

"Shit, man down!" The M14 soldier shouted, reloading his rifle.

As he emerged again, one of the enemies mounted his RPK machine gun on a fallen tree, with this position the Vetcong could maintain supressing fire on the Americans. The RPK fired continuously, kicking up dust all around the yanks, and chipping away at the rocks they were hidden behind.

"What do we do?" The M79 wielding soldier asked of his sergeant.

"Gimme that!" The sergeant replied, snatching the M79 out of the other soldier's hands.

He then poked out of cover for a split second, getting a general sense of where the enemy was. He didn't have much time before the enemies began advancing dangerously close, he popped up a second time and launced a 40mm grenade, it impacted behind the enemy machine gunner, blowing off both his legs.

"We're clear, finish them off!" The sergeant called, handing the M79 back to his comrade.

The sergeant aimed his M16 once more, firing a long burst into the enemy positions, he managed to hit a Vietcong in the shoulder, effectively incapacitating the man. He ran over to his fallen squadmate, retrieving the M60 from his lifeless corpse. He propped it up on the rock and held down the trigger, before the enemy could take proper cover, he had downed two of them.

Now it was three on three, easy pickings for the well equipped American troops. The Vietcong knew this, and emerged from cover in a suicidal charge, brandishing their bayonets. Just as they emerged, the M60's barrel needed changing, there was no time though.

The sergeant pulled his pistol from it's holster and also broke cover. He fired two shots into the nearest enemy, who was downed instantly by the heavy .45 caliber slugs. His two squadmates also broke cover, firing their weapons at the two other enemies, who by now were in melee range. It was all too late, as the M14 soldier just began firing the razor sharp bayonet was plunged deep into his chest, penetrating his heart. The Vietcong then turned to the sergeant, wo already had his pistol aimed at the enemy's head.

The skull cracked and brains were mangled as the large bullet made it's way through the Vietcong's head. The M79 soldier fired his weapon in dangerously close proximity to the enemy soldier advancing on him. The grenade impacted the enemy's torso directly, it exploded, sending hundreds of deadly pieces of shrapel in all directions. The Vietcong's torso was opened up completely, while shards of jagged metal pierced the American's body in many places, killing him instantly. The sergeant fell to the floor also, he had take shrapnel to the leg and the soft part of his torso.

Now Nightmare Moon made her move, the two opposing forces had destoyed each other far more effectively than she had planned, this would be easier than she had hoped. She quickly transformed into her physical form and stood menacingly over the wounded soldier. She lifted him up magically, his eyes turned wide when he saw that a black coated nightmarish unicorn was lifting him off his feet. He reached for his pistol, but it was pulled away quickly by Nightmare Moon. She was about to snap the soldier's neck, when she put it off a little longer and lifted his helmet off his head.

"You again?" She exclaimed, as she relaised that she was hoisting Sgt. John Marsh in the air, about to end his life.

As she stared into his eyes, she got the unshakable feeling that she was being watched, and not just by Sgt. Marsh. Sure enough, as she looked skywards, Rainbowdash hovered above the treetops, jaws agape. She had been watching the battle since it began. Nightmare Moon cursed under her breath, she wouldn't be able to survive an attack from the Elements of Harmony alone, and this could be her one and only chance to get the weapons she needed.

She dropped John to the ground, transformed to her gaseous state, and wrapped an amorphous appendage around the nearby Colt pistol, dragging the weapon off as she slinked into the bushes. John tried his best to drag himself towards his dead comrade, who had a medical kit as part of his field equipment. Rainbowdash shook off her shock and flew down to the injured sergeant, who hadn't noticed her presence. He managed to reach his dead squadmate and pull the medical bag off his belt. He unzipped the bag and pulled out a pair of tweezers, some wad and a roll of bandages.

John knew he had to get the shrapnel out of his body before it did anymore damage, and he knew it wasn't going to be pleasant. He took a nearby stick and placed it between his teeth, biting down hard. With shaky hands he slowly inserted the tweezers into the bleeding wound in his belly. Miraculously, the shrapnel hadn't punctured any vital organs, it had still ripped plenty of muscle and the wound was bleeding profusely.

He grunted in pain and bit down harder as the tweezers made contact with the metal, he managed to maneuver them in a position where they could get a good grasp of the shrapnel. He then readied himself for the next part, breathing deeply before slowly pulling the metal back through the entrance wound. He nearly screamed through the stick he bit down on as the metal made fresh slices into his flesh. With one final gruesome tug he yanked the shrapnel out of his belly, regaining his composure for a second.

After a second or two, he quickly stuffed some cotton wadding in the would to reduce the bleeding and wrapped a large bandage around his midriff. The bandage soaked with blood slightly at the point of the wound. Now John focused on the wound in his leg, this one wasn't nearly as bad, the shrapnel was still half sticking out of his upper thigh, clearly visible. He grasped it with his fingers, ripping it out as fast as he could. A burning sensation overtook his entire leg as he quickly wrapped another bandage around his thigh, this one also gaining a red blotch where the wound was. John propped himself up against the rock that had sheltered him from the enemy bullets not ten minutes ago.

He breathed deeply, rummaging around in the bag again, he found a small syrette labelled 'Morphine', this would deal witht he pain fairly effectively. He pulled the needle guard off and pierced the largest vein in his left arm with the needle point. Mere moments after the prick, he fel a large portion of the pain subside and felt his senses dull noticably.

Through all this, Rainbowdash simply watched in awe, not sure what to do with herself. The pained noises told her that John needed her help, but he also looked as if he knew what he was doing. After he was finished patching himelf up, he closed his eyes, letting the cool breeze lift his fringe up slightly. With the morphine dulling his thoughts, he didn't realise that he had just lost his entire squad in the space of a few minutes. It also didn't occur to him that a turquoise coated, rainbow maned pegasus stood not more than five feet from him. The latter fact soon struck him as he looked around the forest he found himself in. His eyes panned from right to left, finally connecting with the maroon eyes of the pegasus watching him. John jumped back visibly, shocked and confused by the sudden appearance of the strange creature before him.

This action confused Rainbowdash, shouldn't he know her by now? She took a step forward, countered by John taking two back, wincing at the gash in his leg.

"Shit that smarts." He grimaced, through gritted teeth. The morphine was already starting to wear off and having weight on his injured leg wasn't comfortable for John.

"Are you ok?" Rainbowdash asked. At this, John seemed to nearly jump out of his skin, which caused another bour of pain to shoot up from his leg and midriff.

"Fuck!" John exclaimed, clutching his belly, bent over. "What the fuck, you can talk?" He asked of the rainbow maned pony, who looked as confused as he was.

"Of course I can talk, what do you take me for?" Rainbowdash asked indignantly.

"Look don't get all pissy with me, it's perfectly normal to question the fact that a pony can fucking talk!" John replied, his voice equakky indignant.

"Why shouldn't I be irritated, I mean, you're the one who's accusing me of being some animal that can't talk!" Rainbowdash flew in close to John, eyeing him up. "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't swear when I'm around!" She added.

"Look, I just wrenched two bits of sharp ass metal out of myself, I don't need etiquette lessons from a flying pony with punk hair!"

"Who are you calling a punk?"

"Fucking hell, can't I say anything without you taking offense?"

"You can't when all you say is offensive stuff, no!"

"Fuck this shit I need a smoke!" John walked towards the dead medic's body, pulling a pack of cigarettes from the band on the helmet. He placed one in his mouth and lit a match that he had on him. John took a few tokes from the cigarette and blew the smoke into the air. Rainbowdash managed to get a good whiff of the smoke, which didn't agree with her nostrils.

"What are you doing?"

"Smoking." Rainbowdash was about to reply when Applejack finally made her way through a nearby bush, catching sight of John and Rainbowdash.

"John!" She called, running and hugging the soldier from behind. John recoiled at the sudden contact, apparently unaware of the pony prior to her outburst.

"The fuck is this, dows everyone in this place know me or some shit?" Applejack jumped back, this didn't sound like the man she'd met before, the voice was the same but it seemed less mature.

"John, it's me, Applejack?" She said, slightly hurt at John's outburst.

"Am I supposed to know you, and how the fuck do you know me for that matter? Arrgh!" He bent over again, once again clutching his belly. Applejack had a sneaking suspicion of what was going on. As John was bent over, she lifted his shirt up, looking to his side. Where she expected to find a red mark, all she found was dirtied, slightly blood stained skin.

This revelation confirmed her suspicions, Nightmare Moon must have transported an earlier vesion of John back, whether by accident or on purpose.

* * *

><p><strong>So yeah, this John is a lot less battle hardened and battle weary, so he's still got a lot of warrior spirit left in him. We'll see how the ponies react to the new, or old, John in later chapters. As always please leave a review and add this story to your favourites and alerts. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I know it was a long time coming and I'd hate to disappoint my biggest fans!<strong>


	11. Doctors Appointment

"So... You don't know either of us?" Applejack asked John, who stood bent over slightly, still holding his stomach.

"Nope, I don't kn- Grr, know either of you." He said between pained grunts.

"Do you know where you are?" Rainbowdash asked him, slightly calmer than before, but not without a twang of annoyance in her voice.

"South Vietnam?" John asked, getting only a shake of the head and a raised eyebrow in return. "Then no."

"Well I reckon we can help you with that sugarcube." Applejack said proudly, and perhaps slightly friendlier than John would have liked. "This here land is known as Equestria, yer standing in the Everfree forest right now, and back there a little ways," She pointed her hoof to where she and Rainbowdash had just come from, "Is the town of Ponyville, it's got a little nurse clinic there, so we can have you right as rain in no time!" She finished her verbal tour of the area, looking to the man before her for confirmation that he'd understood.

"Nurse clinic, you mean like a hospital?" The sergeant asked his impromptu tour guide, who nodded.

"Uh huh, I'm sure Nurse Redheart would be more'n happy to take a look at whatever y'all have done to yerself there." Applejack pointed to John's abdomen, which he was still holding with his arm.

"Alright, I guess I can make the walk. I'll need some things first though." With that, he picked up the two nearest weapons, which happened to be his M16 and a flare pistol, ammo for both guns, and the dog tags from his three fallen comrades. Finally, he took a green helmet from the ground and plopped it onto his head, the shadow it cast covered his eyes, giving him a sinister look of anonymity.

"Ready?" Applejack asked kindly, not at all phased by his new shadowy appearance.

"I guess." Was the only reply he gave as he limped ahead of the two ponies in the direction Applejack had gestured to earlier.

"So, what exactly did you do to yerself anyhow?" Applejack asked as she caught up to the sergeant, which wasn't a particularly hard task.

"It wasn't me." He replied simply.

"So..."

"Look, one of my squad did something pretty fucking stupid and as a result I got a healthy dose of shrapnel."

"Right..."

* * *

><p>It was almost an hour before they were on the outskirts of Ponyville, John's body was quite close to giving up on itself, all the adrenalin had flushed from his system and the morphine filled syrettes that had fuelled the hike there had all run out except for one.<p>

"Right then, where's this hospital?" John asked his orange coated companion, who pointed towards a two story building not far from where they stood. As he made for the door, she stopped him in his tracks with one hoof.

"Whoa there nelly, you can't just walk in there." She said.

"Why not?" John asked, slightly perplexed.

"Think about it, they ain't never seen one of your kind before. If y'all just trot along to the desk, I'll bet the nurse there'll get the fright of her life!" Applejack explained, clearing up the situation for John.

"Wait, I thought you said you knew me already?"

"Well me an' Rainbow do, but I can't exactly speak for the rest of the ponies in this town now, can I?" As Applejack spoke, John looked around him. Sure enough, most of the passers by were throwing at least a funny look his way, if not looking downright frightened of him. In hindsight, perhaps the helmet covering his eyes wasn't such a good idea after all.

"Tell you what, buddy, I'll go in and make sure they know you're coming. That way it won't be s much of a shock seeing you, you get me?" Rainbowdash chimed in, receiving a thoughtful 'hmm' from Applejack.

"Y'know Dash, that might just work, it's worth a shot at any rate." With that, the blue pegasus flew in through the door of the clinic, while the other two just stood rooted to the spot. It was a good minute or so before she emerged again, looking smug as ever.

"Alright, they know what to expect, go on and give it to 'em." She said enthusiastically.

"You make it sound like we're storming a bunker or something." John chuckled, making his way to the door. As he opened it, a few gasps could be heard from ponies in the seating area. To anypony who hadn't seen him before, he was a intimidating sight, standing significantly taller than anypony, his clothing covered in dirt and blood, and the helmet obscuring his eyes. He almost looked inhuman, soulless, which was surprising close to how he felt at the time.

"C-can I help you?" The receptionist nervously asked the man, who silently pointed down towards a bloodied bandage wrapped around his abdomen.

"R-right, I'll get the nurse." With that she disappeared through a door behind the desk. Within ten seconds, she emerged again joined by a white coated, pastel pink maned pony wearing a nurse's cap.

"Hello there," The nurse said just as nervously as the receptionist, "I'm Nurse Redheart, I'm given to understand that you're injured in some way..."

"Yeah, I've got a laceration in the leg," He pointed at the bandage covering his thigh, "And I got a nasty wound in the belly." He tapped the other, larger bandage,

"Ok, I think we can get those looked at, follow me please." Nurse Redheart and John disappeared into a room, closing the door behind them. The receptionist politely asked Applejack and Rainbowdash to take a seat in the waiting area.

"Right then, let's get these bandages off you." Redheart removed the large bandage around John's abdomen first, scrunching her nose slightly at the smell coming from underneath it.

"How is it?" John asked, trying his best to get a good look.

"It's not great, if I'm honest."

"But it's not bad either?"

"We'll see, how did it happen?" The nurse gestured for John to sit on the bed occupying the middle of the room, while she rummaged around in some cabinets.

"A grenade."

"I'm sorry?"

"Grenade. It throws small, sharp bits of metal at massive speeds in all directions, I took one straight in the belly and one got stuck in my leg." John did his best to explain what a grenade was concisely to the nurse.

"Did that hurt?" The nurse asked.

"Take a guess."

"Right, are the pieces still in there." She had now gotten a piece of cloth and a bottle of what looked like medical alcohol.

"No, I pulled them both out and wrapped myself up."

"Ok, that's good. I'm just going to clean up the area, this might sting a bit." John made a sharp wincing noise as Redheart dabbed the area of the wound, cleaning off most of the dried blood. John stayed as still as possible as the nurse then removed his leg bandage, and did the same on that wound.

"So... You're not scared of me?"

"Why would you say that?" Redheart looked up from the wound at John's face, she could see under the helmet, into the man's eyes.

"Everyone else seemed to be." He said, slightly proudly.

"I'd be lying if I said you weren't intimidating, but I have a professional duty to help any creature to the best of my ability, and your injuries are well within my abilities." The nurse examined the abdomen puncture closely, trying to decipher whether it would have gone far in enough to cause any permanent damage.

"Is it worse than you thought?" John asked hastily.

"No, better in fact. Luckily for you, you seem to have quite a large volume of muscle around the abdominal area, more than most ponies at any rate." The nurse said, alleviating many of John's worries.

"Can I take that as a compliment?"

"If you like." The nurse smiled at him, a friendly smile at that.

"So can I go yet?" John asked suddenly, glancing at the door.

"Not quite, I just have a few questions and I still need to bandage the wounds again." While talking, Redheart withdrew a clipboard and pencil from the end of the bed. "Have you taken any drugs recently?" She asked matter-of-factly.

"Morphine."

"And how much?"

"Three of these." John held up his last syrette, which the nurse examined.

"Ok, do you mind if I record a bit about your species physique?" She asked slightly nervously this time, "We had one of your kind here before, unfortunately I didn't get a chance to speak with that one."

"I guess, if you make it snappy."

"How would you describe your build type among your species?"

"Uhh... Better than average, if I do say so myself."

"Right, do build types vary much among your species?"

"Loads, from what I've seen you ponies all look pretty similar compared to humans."

"Humans?"

"My species is called Human." The nurse let an 'oh' escape her lips as she frantically scribbeld on the clipboard, pencil lodged firmly between her teeth.

"Alright, I'll just wrap some dressing around your wounds and you'll be free to go. Although I would highly suggest trying to contact Princess Celestia about your presence." The nurse said while re-wrapping John's leg.

"Why's that?"

"She's royalty, she'll want to know if a new creature appeared in her country."

"Makes sense, she won't have me locked up though, right?"

"Good heavens no, why would you ask that?" The nurse stopped dressing for a moment.

"Seems the logical thing to do, knowing Humans."

"What would be the logical thing to do not knowing Humans then?" Nurse Redheart found herself almost angry that John would consider himself worthy of imprisonment without crime.

"You're better placed to answer that than I am." John stated, which was true.

"If you ask me, you should be given a chance. I happen to know that the last Human to show up here managed to avert the whole country from potential disaster."

"Huh." Was all John would muster as his final dressing was tied.

"Ok, you're free to go now, it was good meeting you, and try to avoid those... Grenades, was it?"

"Grenades, yeah, will do." John chuckled, the nurse did not. With that, he walked out the door back into the waiting room. Being in the kindly nurse's company for the last half hour, he'd all but forgotten how scared the rest of the ponies looked when the saw him. Minus the two that were waiting for him.

"How'd it go sugarcube?" Applejack asked as she approached John, followed by Rainbowdash.

"Fine, the nurse was pretty friendly, which is refreshing." John explained.

"She sure is a kind one, our Redheart." Applejack chuckled, the trio making their way out of the hospital.

"So what now?" John asked, looking around.

"Well we have a few ponies we want you to meet." Rainbowdash said enthusiastically, while hovering at eye height, which unnerved John a little.

"They're not as insane as you are they?" John said sarcastically, partly at least.

"N- Wait, how am I insane?"

"Leave it Dash." Applejack said calmly, recognising the insincerity in John's manner.

"Whatever, are you in or not?" Rainbowdash adopted her favourite 'I don't even care' face.

"Sure, why not." John said unenthusiastically.

"Cool, we'll start with Twilight, seeing as that's her house there." Rainbowdash pointed towards a tree adorned with a door, plus some windows and balconies.

"That's a tree." John said, confused.

"Yeah, so what?"

"Let's just do this then." John sighed, he'd had his fill of confusion and surprises for at least the next week.

As the trio approached the tree-library hybrid, a small purple and green dragon flung the door open, not stopping to look at them from behind the tower of books he was carrying to god-knows-where.

"Spike sure looks like he's in a hurry." Applejack said, getting a sound of agreement from her turquoise compatriot.

"Never mind, AJ, we're here to see Twilight anyway." Rainbowdash said, hurrying the two others along. They knocked at the door, which was opened up once more to reveal a purple unicorn, with matching eyes, staring at the three.

"John?" The unicorn asked, staring at the soldier, who just looked half confused and half frustrated.

"Oh for fuck's sake!"

* * *

><p><strong>Yay! Another chapter! I finally found the time to get this bad boy written up, sorry it took me so damn long. Anyway, keep an eye out for the next chapter and as always please drop a review.<strong>


	12. Career Change

"John?" Twilight asked, staring directly at the tall figure before her.

"Oh for fuck's sake!" He exclaimed,looking both frustrated ad confused.

"Whoa, what the hay is your problem?" Dash asked from the soldier's left.

"Like I've said more times than I care to count, how the fucking hell does every one of you damn ponies know my name?"

"Look, just come inside and I'll explain everything." Twilight said hastily, trying to defuse the situation.

John sighed in resignation.

"Fine, it's not like the full explanation can be any worse, right?"

The three ponies looked between each other nervously, before leading John into the library. John's crude drawings of modern weaponry were still sat on Twilight's scroll pedestal, as well as was the table set up in the middle. On the table, an M16, not unlike John's slung over his shoulder, lay.

"What's all this?" John asked, looking directly at the rifle on the table.

"Ah, well that'll take some explaining." Twilight said, deliberately not making eye contact.

"We, uh, had someone like you here before." Applejack said, taking over from Twilight.

"A human?"

"Yeah, a hu-thing. Not just that, he was a.. um... whats that thing you are?" Rainbowdash didn't have much luck getting herself understood.

"A human?" John asked again, majorly confused now.

"No, no, the other thing."

"A guy?"

"No, not _that_ other thing, the _other_ other thing?" Both Dash and John were getting fed up with the conversation by this point.

"I... Think what Dash means is what you do." Twilight offered.

"Oh, a soldier?"

"YES! That other thing!" Dash blurted out, surprising everything in the room.

"O...kay then." John said, a little worried about the pegasus' mental wellbeing.

"So as I _was_ saying," Applejack said as she stared daggers at Rainbowdash, "We had one of yer kind here before, not too long ago."

"Right, and he's not here anymore because... He found a way back." Twilight continued.

"He found a way back? I suppose he wasn't in Vietnam then?"

"What makes you say that, Sugarcube?" Applejack asked, slightly suspicious.

"I just can't see any reason to go back to 'Nam. I mean, this place is trippy as fuck, don't get me wrong, but no one's tried to shoot me in the face yet, which is a one-up of the jungle." All three ponies winced at the curse word, as usual.

"Well, uh, he... had to go back because..." Twilight started.

"Because he'd die if he didn't!" Rainbowdash butted in.

"Huh?" John was at confusion overload at this point.

"Uh.. Oh shoot, look, it was you, ok?" Twilight blurted out.

"I'm not following you." John replied.

"You were here, you appeared out of nowhere, you and Applejack here fell in-" Suddenly a hoof was planted in Twilight's mouth.

"Uhh... Inseparable, yup, best o' friends you and I, heh, heh." Applejack's voice was shaky all of a sudden.

"I don't remember this." John said, his confusion reaching a fever pitch.

"Well that's the thing, the way I got it, y'all are an _earlier_ version of the you that was here."

"Umm... Ok." John said unassuredly.

"Hey, I know you need some time to think about this, so I'll get some parchment and a quil so I can take some of this down." Twilight said.

"Uhh, I'll go with her." Dash chimed in.

"Uhh, I think I'll go use the little filly's room." Applejack finished with a nervous smile. They all went in their respective directions, leaving a dazed and confused John standing in the middle of the library.

Thoughts swam through his head, how could he have been here in the future? Did he really go back? Why would he have to return or face death? As he pondered these questions, the door behind him flung open.

"Oh hey, it's you, I thought Princess Celestia sent you back to Vie... Viet..." A purple dragon with green spines was suddenly talking to John like they were old friends.

"Vietnam?" John asked, getting a nod in return. "Did she now?"

"Yeah, it's super cool you're back though, Twilight was telling me all about how you and AJ were in luuurve and I know she was totally sad about you going."

"Wait wait, back it up, AJ? The orange one?"

"Yeah, that's the one, Applejack, what happened anyway? Twilight was really angry at Celestia which she never is, and I'm surprised that she sent you back anyway what with you defeating her evil sister for her, I mean she says it's because Celestia thought you were dangerous or something but-"

"SPIKE!" Twilight suddenly shouted. The dragon turned round to see three very angry ponies staring daggers at him.

"Oh... Hey Twilight, what's up?"

"Spike, I'll deal wi-"

"Found a way back?" John suddenly asked, poison dripping from every word he spoke.

"Well, uh, no, not exactly." Twilight started, nervous as anything.

"We thought-" Applejack started, only to be cut off.

"You know, I think I finally understand. I get pulled here as part of that crazy evil bitch's plan, things go awry, I get attached to you," He pointed at Applejack, who noticeably withdrew from him, "For whatever bullshit reason, kill the evil motherfucker, then get carted back to the war because you bitches can't handle the thought of a man with a gun, that it?" None of the ponies spoke, even Applejack and Rainbowdash had abandoned their usual cocky demeanours in favour of something more akin to Fluttershy.

"Well... Yeah." Twilight said, defeated.

"Right, I see. Well you lot can go to Hell if you think I'm going back to that fucked up place! Who knows, maybe you'll learn what a man with a gun can really do! Ever seen someone so angry they could stick a knife in someone's eye, no? I HAVE! Hell, maybe you'll see one too if you're not careful." He drew his vicious looking combat knife, pointing it directly at the unicorn before him.

"Spike, quick, get the princess!" Twilight shouted as her assistant scrawled a note and quickly sent it off.

"Oh, called for back up, eh? I'm not going back, fuck that!" With that, John kicked the door behind him off it's hinges and ran off into the town, barging passing ponies roughly out of the way as he went.

"Hey, what is that... _thing_?" One of the ponies said as John passed. He paused, turned, and tackled the pony in question to the ground, brandishing his knife at her neck.

"You'd better watch your mouth, motherfucker." He snarled, getting up and spitting on the now quivering pony, who was close to tears.

Before anyone else could rile him up, John ran staright for the outskirts of the town, and further, eventually finding himself on the edge of a forest. He looked behind him, checking that he hadn't been followed. He slumped to the floor, back pressed up against the nearest tree.

By this point the sun was just setting over the hills that made up the horizon. He sighed, it had been a long time since he'd seen that kind of orange without it setting fire to something, or someone.

"Feeling sentimental?" A strangely familiar voice said calmly from within the forest. John leapt to his feet and wheeled around, greeted with the sight he probably most didn't want to see.

The jet black alicorn who had attempted to murder him only a few hours before stood before him. John deftly drew his rifle and loosed tow shots at the creature. As if it saw this, it transformed into nightmarish black gas and sidestepped, or sideslinked, the two bullets, transforming back to the original shape in the blink of an eye.

"Fuck." John said, more to himself than anyone else.

"Now I'm going to talk, and you're going to listen" The alicorn said, magically ripping all of John's weapons off his person. "I was in the library earlier, I heard what my sister did to you."

"How did you-"

"Who did I say would be doing the talking?" Nightmare Moon snapped, pointing her horn threateningly at the soldier.

"As I was saying, since my sister has no interest in letting you stay, I'd like to make a proposal." She paused for longer than was necessary, as if waiting for John to reply.

"And that is..."

"You help me, and I'll let you stay here, indefinitely." The alicorn said bluntly.

"When you say 'help' you, what exactly does that mean?" John said, raising an eyebrow.

"As you may very well know, you, or your other self, thwarted my plans for revenge before. When you 'killed' me, I lost a lot of my magical power, temporarily, at least."

"Right..."

"So I won't be able to get past the Elements of Harmony in the same way I did last time, which is where I need your help."

"The what's of what?"

"Elements of Harmony, six magical ponies representing the spirits of kindness, laughter, gener-"

"Alright, alright, I get the picture, what do you want me to do about them?"

"Capture them." Nightmare Moon said, not skipping a beat.

"Why not just kill them?"

"Because even I despise death, despite being regarded as 'evil' by the citizens of this land."

"Surely if they're magic, capturing them won't do shit to stop them." Even the princess of the night winced at John's ready use of swearing.

"Not so, the effect of being captured and restrained has a numbing effect on the magic of harmony."

"Right, so binding them up tight takes the venom out of the snake, is what you're basically saying." John offered, the reply being a sage nod.

"Indeed, but just doing that won't work fully, you'll need two more things to be fully protected, both of which I can provide."

"And they are?"

"Magical protection, and something a little more fitting to wear." Before John could ask anything, Nightmare Moon teleported them both to her castle deep in the forest, which dazed John slightly.

"I think I'm gonna be..." John said, bent double.

"Teleportation, takes some getting used to." Nightmare Moon said matter-of-factly.

"Alright... I'm fine..." John gasped for air.

"Ok, first off." Before John could stand back up, Nightmare Moon charged her horn and shot a brilliant white beam straight into his chest. The beam connected for mere seconds, before subsiding.

"I don't feel any different."

"You won't, but when the time comes, you won't be defeated by the elements should they attempt it."

"Wait, didn't you say the elements were kindness... Uh, laughter and generosity?"

"Honesty, loyalty and magic, yes."

"I'm pretty sure I can take being laughed at, or being given shit." John said, sarcasm dripping from his tongue.

"It's not that simple, the elements aren't simply those six virtues, they are just a facade for the magic that lies beneath. Luckily, the humiliating effect of being tied and bound should defuse the magic enough that it won't incapacitate you on contact, that spell I just put on you simply gives you that extra bit of protection."

"...Ok." John said, giving up any hope of understanding what was going on.

"Finally, you'll need to look intimidating, so the first thing the elements feel when they see you in unbridled fear." As she spoke, Nightmare Moon levitated a modified version of the royal guad armour, midnight blue in colour and easily able to fit John's frame.

"With all due respect, I'm not wearing that." John said bluntly.

"Why not?"

"Beacuse it looks ridiculous, hell the element of laughter'll probably have a field day if I rock up wearing that."

"Ok, so what do you suggest."

"Can you still get shit from my world?"

"I can try."

"Alright, try and get a spec ops suit or something, something designed to be covert." John explained, while Nightmare Moon closed her eyes and concentrated hard. Before long, a loud bang came from behind John, and what looked like a futuristic piece of armour appeared, "There, from what I could gather, this suit was made in something called nineteen-eighty-two, does that mean anything to you?"

"Well it's almost twenty years in the future." John said, dumbstruck.

"Oh, it's a date."

"Yeah, unless I'm mistaken." John walked up to the suit, which now levitated in the air. It consisted of a black jumpsuit, flak vest combo, an equally black reinforced plastic helmet, with balaclava and black tinted perspex combat goggles. Two black boots were at the end of each leg, and gloves that seemed to have panels of metal sewn in to reinforce them.

"Is that good enough?" Nightmare Moon asked impertinently.

"Oh, it'll do just fine." John wasted no time in changed out of his tatty service fatigues and into the new suit, minus the headgear. The suit fit his frame perfectly, and felt pleasingly comforatble.

"I have to agree, it looks very fitting for a disciple of the night." Nightmare Moon said, impressed.

"A what?" John mumbled, pulling the balaclava over his head. The fabric muffled his voice a little, but not to an inaudible degree. He then placed the goggles over his eyes, the elasticated band keeping them tight over his face. Now nothing of his real face could be seen, only black fabric and perspex, which covered both his eyes and the bridge of his nose. John finally placed the helmet onto his head, securing the chin strap.

"I'm impressed, you'll certainly be able to strik fear into those little foals' hearts with that look." If Nightmare Moon didn't know better, she'd have said there was nothing living under the suit, it looked like a spectre, _perfect_.

"So who am I looking for?" John asked, snapping Nightmare Moon from her trance.

"Oh, you've already met three of them, Applejack, Rainbowdash, and Twilight Sparkle, they represent the elements of honesty, loyalty and magic, respectively."

"Ok, and the other three?" As John spoke, three magial bubbles appeared around Nightmare Moon, each holding an image of a pony in it, in the first was a pink pony, with hair like candy floss.

"Pinkie pie, the element of laughter." In the second, was a pure white unicorn with curled purple hair and more eye shadow on than you could shake a stick at.

"Rarity, the element of generosity." In the final bubble stood a yellow pegasus, with a flowing pink mane.

"Finally, Fluttershy, the element of kindness." Nightmare Moon closed the magical bubbles, confident that John could pick the six ponies froma crowd. "Now they all have their weaknesses, try to observe them before making your move, learn when and how best to strike."

"Yeah, yeah, I know how to do an ambush, y'know." John waved a hand in the air, signalling that he was ready to get started.

"When you capture one, bring it here and keep them secure, you can also rest here if you so wish. I won't be here when you return, I'll get in touch once you have the six elements."

"Right, got it." John was ready to go do his new job.

"One last thing, I believe this is yours." Nightmare Moon levitated John's Colt pistol into his hands.

"Ah, I wondered where that had gotten to, thanks." He said, slipping the pistol into the empty holster situated on the jumpsuit's belt, plus the extra mags from his old suit into the pouches.

"Remember, the elements, and their leader, Princess Celestia are not to be trusted." Nightmare Moon finalised, emphasising the name of her sister.

"I'm aware of that." John said, ice in his voice.

"Now go, and earn your stay here." Nightmare Moon said before she transformed into inky gas and darted off into the night sky.

"Oh I'll earn it alright, I'm not going back." John said as he left the castle through the great front gates, and walked with purpose down the path to Ponyville.


	13. Capturing The Magic

"Hmm..." John hummed thoughtfully as he stood at the edge of the Everfree forest, the trip from the castle to the outskirts hadn't been a particularly eventful one. Now John stood on a pathway, which split into three directions, one led back into the forest, the second led down into a valley, nestled into which was the quaint little town his targets supposedly resisded in, the last led up towards some rocky foothills also overlooking the town.

Opting for the foothills, John took the path up, figuring he'd be able to see the town better and form a plan of attack. As he walked, he considered which of the six elements would be easier to subdue. Of the three he had met, Rainbowdash and Applejack seemed to be strong, for their kind anyway. Twilight Sparkle was less athletic, and he knew where she lived to boot, so he opted to head for the large tree that doubled up as the town library. He could see it from where he stood, hafway up a shallow hill.

By now, the sun was just about to set over the horizon. Since John was dresssed in an exclusvely black outfit, he decided it would be best to wait until nightfall, for both camouflage and fear factor purposes.

As the last rays of sunlight gave way to the moon, all of Ponyville retreated indoors for the night, various houses had lights visible through the windows. John managed to reach the edge of the town withing twenty minutes, and he quickly darted into the nearest alley. As good as his camouflage was, he wasn't about to stroll through the middle of town.

It took him almost another ten minutes to cross from the edge of town to where the library was, near the centre. The windows were still illuminated, signalling that the occupant, or occupants, hadn't gone to sleep yet. John would have liked to have waited until they were in bed, but figured he didn't have time to waste. He checked the coast was clear before sneaking up to the trunk of the tree.

Observing the structure, John could identify at least one balcony, and the means to climb to either of them. Any soldier worth his salt knows that height gives the tactical advantage, so the choice was clear.

"Well that's a no brainer." John muttered to nobody in particular, before initiating the short climb to the balcony.

He reached it in good time, and peered through the window-door hybrid that connected it to the tree. Seeing nothing living in sight, he quietly as he could opened the door, and crept inside.

Closing the door behind him, John could hear faint muttering, as if someone were reading to themselves. Sure enough, as he looked down from his level to the lower one, the purple unicorn was standing at a small pedestal, enthralled in what looked to be some sort of textbook. Looking around, John pinpointed a spot on the far side of this level that would allow him to jump down pretty much right next to the unicorn.

He crept past the purple dragon who had busted the ponies' cover mere hours earlier, crouching in a predatory fashion above Twilight's position. It was clear she was still unaware of his presence, which gave him clear signal to proceed.

Twilight skimmed the pages of the textbook that lay infront of her, having already studied this book three times before. Unfortunately for her _Equestrian Species Directory_ didn't mention Humans, or anything like them at all. She sighed, her one chance to publish her own unique book, and Spike had to go and blow it with his blabbermouth. She turned a page with her magic, staring blankly at the words. She knew for sure that this book didn't contain the information she sought, but there was no point not looking anyway. As she finished the first page, her ears pricked, a rustling sound above gave way to the sound of something heavy landing behind her. Before she could spin round and see what had dropped, a hand roughly grabbed the back of her mane. She was about to activate a defensive spell, when her face connected with the pedestal before her, hard.

Dazed and stunned, Twilight stumbled a few steps to the left before she promptly blacked out.

"Well that was easy." John said, surprised that the pony was now unconscious. He shrugged despite himself, and looked around for something to tie the pony up with.

He looked in the corner of the room, where an M60 machine gun lay. Next to it was the ammunition box. John pried it open, revealing a bulletless fabric belt feed, easily long enough to tie up the pony's four legs.

Before Twilight could reawaken, John tied her two front hooves together, then tied those to her back ones. Satisfed that the unicorn wouldn't wriggle free from the binds, John hoisted her up onto his shoulder. Twilight was lighter than he had expected, although she was much smaller than any pony from Earth.

John swiftly exited the tree via the front door, checking all around to make sure nopony spotted him kidnapping one of their kind. He had wisely memorised his route to the tree, being sure it would come in handy for exfiltrating the town. He darted through the alleys, intent on vacating the town as quickly as he could. He reached the final alley without incident, and peered out of the opening , checking the coast was clear one final time.

Satisfied, John made for the direct path to the Everfree forest, breaking into a near run. As far as he was concerned, the faster he could put some distance between that town and himself, the better. After a full minute of running, John made it to the top of the foothill above Ponyville, which gave him a clear path to the forest. He decided to take a little breather, the pony on his shoulder would be out cold for a good while longer yet, after all.

Setting Twilight down on the dewy grass, he sat himself down and watched the town. Nothing was happening, just the way he liked it. John was thoroughly enjoying his complacency when he heard voices from the path to the town. Sure enough, as he looked to the bottom of the foothill, he saw three smaller ponies, one off-yellow, with a berry red mane and a bow stuck in, one fiery orange with a purple mane, and one snow white with a mane sporting dual shades of purple.

'Shit.' John thought to himself as the three began to climb the hill, blissfully unaware of the soldier occupying the top.

"I'm sure I saw it come this way!" The yellow one exclaimed, in a southern accent not unlike the orange pony John had met before.

"Are you sure this is a good idea guys?" The white one replied.

"How is it not a good idea, have you ever seen a pony with a monster catching cutie mark?" The orange one chimed in.

"Well, monsters do sort of have a reputation for being, well, dangerous." The white one said, more fear in her voice than before.

"Well did ya see that one, it looked like it were made for sneaking, I bet it couldn't buck a single apple!"

'What a bitch!' John thought to himself before he realised the three fillies were halfway up the hill and he still hadn't moved. He had to choose between hiding from the three, or knocking each of them out. Neither solution was particularly desirable, he either had to cower in fear of three little kids, or brutally attack them.

In the end, John's pride won over his compassion. Snarling like a rabies infected dog, he charged down the hill, his pistol wielded like a hammer. The three fillies were rooted to the spot, paralysed by fear. Until one of them started screaming, triggering the other two.

John, in an effort not to tumble head over heels, changed his run into a slide, grabbing two of the fillies by the necks as he passed their spot. Before he got away from the other one, the winged one, he cracked the two's heads into each other, sending them off into dreamland, painfully.

The orange pegasus now looked at the monster with unbridled anger, anger at the agression to her two friends. She charged down the hill herself now, wings helping her to keep upright. John dropped the two in his arms, and wheeled around just in time for the third to connect with his belly.

The tussling pair rolled down the hill, one just trying to get a good grip on the other, while the other just rolled. John finally managed to grab the filly by the chest, and he skidded himself to a halt.

"W-wait, please..." Was all the orange pegasus could say before her head connected to the cold, hard earth.

John sighed before making the long trek back up the hill, a trio of magical pony children was something he'd rather not have added to his combat experience, but he did what he had to.

'Story of my life.' John thought to himself as he picked up his fallen pistol and the purple unicorn who was sill unconcious, and started the walk into the forest.

* * *

><p>Twilight awoke with a groan, her head pounding as if she'd failed a particularly volatile spell. Through bleary eyes she tried to make out the familiar outlines of her library, however, all she could see was stonewash grey and the occasional blob of midnight black. She shook her head vigorously, which cleared her vision enough to make out roughly what surrounded her.<p>

Twilight found herself in the corner of a bare room, no larger than her library's main space. The walls were old, and made of plan stone, as were the floors and ceiling. There were two windows on either side of the room, with the glass shattered and the frames worn.

Twilight tried to move her legs, only to find them tied up with some sort of rough fabric, which chafed her skin a little. She sighed, well and truly immobilised for the time being. It was only of her second look at the room, that Twilight spotted a shadowy figure in the corner, apparently enthralled in something sitting on what looked to be an altar.

Twilight cringed her neck to see what was on the surface, but to no avail. She did, however, manage to catch the attention of the figure, who looked at her, the moonlight streaming through the window lighting up it's face as it did so. Now Twilight could see the figure clearly, it looked similar to the soldier who had somwhow landed in Equestria not too long ago. This one seemed to have no clear face, or something covering it, and was covered head to toe in black clothing.

Twilight suddenly felt an imoending sense of danger, most likely due to the figure now staring directly at her. She shuffled backward a few feet, her movements matched by the figure stepping towards her. Before long, Twilight's back hit cold stone, unable to back up further, and with the figure still advancing, she feared the worst.

As the creature neared Twilight, it stooped down to her level.

"P-please don't hurt me..." Twilight begged, fear laced in her voice.

Still unspeaking, the creature cupped Twilight's chin in one of it's hands, seemilngly inspecting her face closely. With the other hand, it poked a spot at the top of her muzzle. Sharp pain ran from the spot, causing Twilight to gasp and her eyes to water. Satisfied, the creature stood up again and went back to what it was doing before.

"Wh-Who are you?" Twilight stuttered, her voice still holding fear.

"I thought you already knew me."


	14. The Stare

"Wait... You're not John!" Twilight exclaimed suddenly, causing the soldier on the other side of the room to raise an eyebrow under his mask.

"I'm afraid that's where you're wrong." He replied coolly, slowly undoing the chinstrap of his helmet and lifting it off his head. Next came off the goggles, and then the balaclava.

Sure enough, the very same person who stormed out of Twilight's library not long before, only this time missing the headband, stood before her.

"Wait... Why are you kidnapping me?" Twilight asked angrily, "I'm not the one who sent you back to your world!"

"Oh, that's not why I'm doing this. I've got other reasons." John remained calm while Twilight continued to lose her temper.

"Then why are you?"

"Classified information, my dear, classified information." John said swiftly.

"What does that mean?" Twilight asked, her voice now dropping from anger to annoyance.

"It means I can't say why I'm doing this, suffice to say I benefit from the mission in a very important way, to me at least." John went back to fiddling with something on the altar with this sentence.

"Well can you at least say what you're doing on that altar, or is that 'classified' too?"

"That's not classified, just plain none of your business." John replied, a little more coldly than he was before.

"Alright, no need to get so defensive over it." Twilight's annoyance increased with this.

"Whatever, I gotta go get the next element of bullshit anyway, I'll see you later." John abruptly said as he put his balaclava, helmet and goggles back onto his face and head.

"Wait, you didn't want just me?" Twilight's annoyance turned to surprise and intrigue.

"Hell no, what d'you think makes you so fucking special anyway?"

"Well I am the princess' favoured student." Twilight said proudly.

"Riiight... And my balls are the president of Colombia, but that doesn't mean shit to anyone round here."

"You're not making much sense." Twilight said as she raised an eyebrow.

"Likewise." John said before making a swift exit from that particular room of the castle, which happened to be high in one of the towers.

John strolled through the Everfree forest, blissfully unaware of the Manticores, giant Seas Serpents, and other mythical monstrosities that roamed the interior of the wooded area. Once again, it wasn't long before he'd reached the edge of the forest.

'Right... Take two.' John thought to himself before setting off down the path to the town once again. By now it was just about sunrise, lucky too, because John didn't technically know where anypony other than the unicorn currently residing in his custody lived.

John soon found himself in a fairly barren area, with the town still in sight. The rolling hills and green grass had been replaced by rocky outcroppings and cracked, dry dirt. In a small basin were what looked similar to molehills, but larger in size. John shrugged to himself, if they had talking ponies why couldn't they have freakishly large moles?

John surveyed the town below from the edge of a particularly large outcrop. Not much movement could be seen in the town below, which made sense seeing as it was still dawn. One thing did strike John though, as he looked to the left, past the edge of the town, one small figure was indeed up and about. John couldn't make it out much at this distance, and the chances of it being one of the ponies he was looking for were slim at best.

'Beats sitting around here 'til something happens.' John mused to himself before jumping down from the rock to a gravely slope below.

He slid down slightly faster than he'd anticipated, making it to the bottom in a great cloud of dust.

'Real stealthy, idiot.' John scolded to himself as he made off at a good pace towards the figure he'd seen earlier, making sure to stay a good distance from the town as he did so.

* * *

><p>Fluttershy hummed to herself as she went about various burrows and nests, waking up the various critters that called her garden home. She was usually the earliest to be up, save only sometimes for Applejack during applebuck season.<p>

"Wakey wakey..." Fluttershy said in her token soft voice, her efforts, however meagre they were, were rewarded with a pair of what seemed to be chipmunks emerging from their burrow. The two mammals stretched their little arms before scurrying off to do whatever it is chipmunks do in their spare time.

After almost an hour Fluttershy was about to wake the occupants of the final nest, which happened to be three small birds of some description. As they chirped and went on their merry way, Fluttershy sighed contentedly.

Arguably the hardest part of the day was over for Fluttershy, but as she turned to head inside for breakfast, her day took a turn for the worse. Before her stood a figure almost twice her size, dressed head to toe in menacing black fatigues. The monstrous figure took a step towards Fluttershy, who in turn took a hasty step back.

The monster was about to take another step when Angel, Fluttershy's pet bunny, ran up to it. The snow white mammal began vigorously thumping on the foot of the monster, hoping to stop it in it's tracks. The monster did indeed stop, but only to look down at the rabbit, draw a silver looking implement from it's belt and brandish it in it's five fingered hand.

Fluttershy gasped, she feared she was about to witness her own pet get it's head caved in by this terrible being. Instead, something entirely unexpected happened. The monster held the tool in one had, seemingly pointing it at the bunny, who was still thumping it's foot.

In a split second, an earsplitting crack came from the tool, at the same time, a patch of dust was kicked up very close to the rabbit who had now stopped thumping and was running as fast as it's little legs would carry it back to the safety of Fluttershy's house.

This act of aggression angered Fluttershy to no end. No one, pony or otherwise, scares her pet. She steeled herself for what she was about to do, not even sure if what she was going to do would have an effect on the monster that had now resumed looking at her.

"Now you listen here, mister!" Fluttershy almost bellowed, her voice morphing from the usual timid tone to a confident and stern one. "I will not tolerate anypony, ANYPONY, scaring my friends! Now you're going to apologise and walk away from my home, or there will be hay to pay!"

The monster simply stepped forward until it was as close to Fluttershy as it could get without their bodies being flush against each other. It knelt down to her level and it's face, or what Fluttershy guessed was the face, remained unchanging.

That was the final straw, nopony mocks Fluttershy and gets away with it. She closed her eyes momentarily, before opening them once again to be wide as dinner plates. The creature backed off slightly, obviously being affected in some way by the stare. Fluttershy intensified her stare, closing the distance between the two.

What happened next was an unwelcome surprise for Fluttershy...


	15. Bonus: Sergeant Marsh

**Out Of The Jungle has officially hit over 100 reviews, as well as almost 20,000 hits, 35 favourites and 35 story alerts at the time of writing. As a big thank you to everyone who made writing this story such a pleasure, and indeed still makes fanfiction as a whole a joy, here is a bonus chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>My name is Sergeant Jonathan Benjamin Marsh. Son of William Luke Marsh and Katie Samantha Wengrove. I was born in Washington DC, on September 8th, 1945. My father was a United States Marine, serving mainly in the Pacific campaign of the Second World War. That was, until he was honourably discharged and awarded the Purple Heart for his actions at Guadal Canal.<p>

Captain William Marsh, nicknamed 'Willsy' by his fellow Marines, was shot by a Japanese sniper, in the shoulder while he dragged one of his squad mates behind cover. The squad mate, one Corporal Frederic Vinewood, died shortly afterwards from shock and blood loss, he was missing a leg after all.

Katie Wengrove was a dental practitioner in the DC outskirts, working at a dental practise only ten minutes walk from our house. Of course, there's not much to tell about dentistry, her life wasn't fraught with danger like my father's, or like mine.

My best childhood friend was Jack Nile, we played together, went to school together, we did everything together. One time, we even took on the biggest kid in school just to win a bet. We both came outta that venture with ten dollars and a black eye each.

I was only twenty two years old when the letter came through. My mother cried, my father was angrier than I'd ever seen him. I was to be drafted into the United States military, my basic training began in a weeks time. Of course we all knew what that meant. I wasn't going to spend my army life training recruits and cleaning rifles, no, they had volunteers for that. They didn't resort to drafting unless they _needed_ soldiers, and there's only one thing the government _needs_ soldiers for.

When Nile found out I was a conscript, he sprinted down to the volunteer centre, I remember that day, I ran after him, shouting "Stop being such a fucking idiot!" all the way to the centre, that didn't stop him of course, nothing ever did. When Nile gets an idea into his head, it stays there.

Within a month we were laying side by side, M16s propped against sandbags, slights aligned on the targets downrange. By pure luck they'd put us two in the same company, and there we stayed. Of course if you'd told us that within the year we'd be laying side by side in the mud, M16s propped against our dead comrades, sights aligned on the fanatical Vietnamese soldier whose bayonet was seconds from making a short sharp trip to painsville, we'd have bugged out there and then, jail be damned.

In three months we were on a C-130 Hercules headed for Saigon, the South Vietnamese capital. The city itself was beautiful, the country was Hell on Earth. Thick jungle, enemy soldiers afraid of nothing, men who wanted to die for their country. Most soldiers crack under the pressure of that place, not Nile and I, we thrived.

We made a pact the first day, we'd watch each other's backs, and we did. It was out steely resolve on the battlefield and calm reserve off the battlefield which eventually earned us our field promotions. Sergeant John Marsh and Staff Sergeant Jack Nile, we were the proudest men in the world that day.

We kept watching each other's backs, new squad mates came and went, but Nile and I stuck together like glue. That is, until I broke out pact. Nile died, I tried to help him, but I couldn't, I could just sit there, bleeding, while Nile died in front of me. It was the worst day of my life, I was always told that men don't cry. Fuck that.

Another two months later and my squad was on patrol, I didn't know those men much, I never really tried to connect to any of the other solider since Nile's death. It seemed pointless, we were all gonna die anyway. Sure enough, we were ambushed, my men dropped like flies. Surrounded, and with no hope of escape, I made my final journal entry and readied my only contingency plan. An M67 fragmentation grenade.

I never got a chance to use it though, my chance to join Nile was scuppered. I felt like shit, like I had a hangover from a solid week of drinking. As I stood up, I saw an orange pony, with blond hair, green eyes and a Stetson on it's head, and that's when my life changed for the better.


	16. Summon The Watch

John felt the intensity of Fluttershy's 'stare' deep inside his mind, he could feel it, almost like it was in there, rooting around. He didn't like the sensation, not one bit. Besides, he wasn't about to stand by and let a little pony mindfuck him.

John raised his hand, the one holding his pistol, and brought it down in a forty-five degree angle, the butt of the pistol contacted Fluttershy's temple, knocking her to the floor with a brutal strike. Tears welled up in her eyes, half from an immense, disorienting pain in her head, and half from just being punched to the floor. John knelt down to look her straight in the face.

"No more funny business, let's go." With that, John picked Fluttershy up, placed her on her hooves and nudged her a little harder than was necessary in the direction of the forest. Fluttershy tentatively stepped forward, her steps getting steadily more stable as they went.

It wasn't a very long walk to the edge of the forest, what with Fluttershy's house being about halfway between it and Ponyville. Fluttershy walked up until the sunlight was replaced by the shade of the forest canopy and stopped.

"What's the hold up?" John asked expectantly.

"Umm... It's just that... It's dark in there." Fluttershy's words weren't much more than a few mutters, but John huffed loudly.

"Just keep fuckin' walking!" He shouted, giving Fluttershy a solid boot up the back end. She almost fell flat on her face, but just about managed to maintain a confused stumble.

As they walked deeper into the forest, John heard nothing save for the rustling of the trees in the breeze for a few minutes. It was then that the near silence was permeated by quiet sobbing. John noticed it was emanating from the yellow pony slowly walking in front of him. He sighed quietly, not an 'I'd better comfort her' sigh, but a 'Fucking hell this is one annoying pony' sigh.

The castle was significantly further from Fluttershy's house than it was from where John had emerged before. The walk took a good couple of hours, although the part of the forest infested with vines that covered the path wasn't particularly helpful. Fluttershy stepped one last step before she fell to the ground, exhausted.

"Fuck sake, what's the problem now?" John asked impatiently, sure he was tired too, but to be too tired to walk at this point was frankly pathetic.

"M-my legs... I can't... I'm so tired..." Fluttershy squeaked in between pants.

"Fine, so your legs don't work anymore, then use your fucking wings." John said firmly, making it more of an order than a suggestion.

"I don't use my wings much, only when I need to." Fluttershy squeaked, not wanting to go any further.

"You need to use them if you don't want me to drag you there backwards." John affirmed, grabbing her long mane for effect.

"O-ok... I'll just... _Meep..._" Fluttershy flapped her wings softly, barely keeping her off the ground below.

"Alright, we're getting somewhere. About fucking time too." John poked Fluttershy in the back with his gun end. "Forwards."

They walked for another two hours, well, one walked anyway. They would have gotten there a while ago, but Fluttershy's sub-par flying stunted their progress significantly. Within another couple of minutes, however, the castle ruin loomed into view.

"Inside." John said coldly, while Fluttershy silently obeyed.

Twilight Sparkle had been tied up in this room for hours now, with no sound other than the wisps of the breeze through the forest and the occasional animal cry.

Now the sounds of six foot/hoof steps accompanied the forest's medley. Twilight was half excited and half scared, who had John captured now? Perhaps it was someone she could talk to for the next few hours...

Scratch that, it's Fluttershy.

The pony and human pair walked into the room one after another, John continually prodding Fluttershy's hindquarters in the direction he wanted her to go. Eventually they reached the corner of the room Twilight was situated in.

"Sit." John commanded, Fluttershy silently obeying. Her cheeks were still slightly wet from the crying.

"Fluttershy? What happened?" Twilight asked quietly, paying no attention to the human who was now untying her hooves and retying the two ponies together with the same belt.

"Oh... Well... Um... Things." Fluttershy stuttered, unsure herself of what actually did just happen.

"Alright, looks like you two are pretty secure, can you keep it down for a couple hours please?" John said much more curtly than he had been before.

"Why?" Twilight asked indignantly as John headed for the door of the room.

"Cause I'm going to sleep, that's why." John replied.

* * *

><p>Rainbowdash sped across the skies of Equestria, looking a lot like she was searching for something. In actual fact, she was looking for the purple unicorn who nopony had seen for a day or so now. Even Fluttershy had been gone for a couple of hours now, which was unlike her. Sighing despite herself, Rainbowdash headed for the library Twilight called home, where three other worried looking ponies stood, awaiting her arrival.<p>

"Nothing." She said dejectedly as she landed near the group.

"Nothin'? T'ain't like Twi to just up and walk off like that, it's gotta be something real important." Applejack offered, not really convinced that she was actually helping anyone's spirits.

"Maybe it has something to do with the three fillies getting themselves hurt, honestly, I can't imagine what manner of crazed stunt they tried to pull off this time, but-"

"Yeah, yeah, we all know Rarity. The point is Twilight's disappeared, so has Fluttershy, and all within a few hours of that human coming back." Rainbowdash was quick to point out this fact.

"His name is John." Applejack retorted through gritted teeth, "'Sides, you and me both know that John wouldn't try to kidnap Twi or Fluttershy."

"Well, the John you _used_ to know wouldn't, but the new... or old... whatever he is John was a lot more reckless." Rainbowdash said, once again pinning the blame on the human.

"I don't agree with ya there Rainbow, even if this John is younger and more brash, I just know he wouldn't do something like this. Especially hurting Applebloom and the others." Applejack was just as quick to defend John as Rainbowdash was to accuse him.

"I assume by 'John' you mean the gentle... colt? Who saved us from Nightmare Moon." Rarity interjected.

"Yeah," Rainbowdash replied, "Except Nightmare Moon re-re-returned and now she's brought a younger John back to try and take over Equestria, and it seems to be working."

"You don't know that though, right Dashie?" Pinkie Pie, who had been silent suddenly joined the conversation.

"Well... No, but I still think it's the most likely explanation."

"I mean, that hoo-man or whatever you said might just have been invited to a super secret non-pony party, but I guess nopony has non-pony parties because then I wouldn't be there, and everypony knows that I make the most super fun super special parties ever!"

"Like I said, the most likely explanation." The three not pink ponies sighed in agreement.

"Anyhow, Rarity, how's Sweetie Belle doing since the, uh, incident?" Applejack said, quickly changing the subject.

"She's fine actually, considering. A little sore in the head, but that's her comeuppance for being such a foal as to chase after strange creatures, I suppose." Rarity replied in her aristocratic tone, despite being a small time pony. "What about Applebloom?"

"She's about the same as that, no 'permanent damage' according to the nurse."

"Oh, you took her to the clinic?" Rarity was a little surprised.

"Sure I did, it did look like a doozy of a bump on her head after all."

"Yeah, same with Scoots too." Rainbowdash chimed in.

"Oh, well perhaps I should get Sweetie belle checked up on there as well, Celestia only knows what brain damage could do to her fashion career." Applejack looked a little incredulous at this.

"I dunno, Rarity, if I didn't know any better, I'd say most of them fashion designers were wrong in the noggin anyhow."

"Why I can't imagine why you would think-"

"If I may interject for a moment?" A familiarly regal voice said from behind the foursome. The ponies immediately turned and bowed at the arrival of their monarch, Princess Celestia.

"Princess, are y'all here about the kidnappings?" Applejack asked as she rose back to her normal posture.

"Kidnappings? Is that what's got my student al riled up?" Celestia asked worriedly.

"Well, we're not actually sure that ponies are being kidnapped," Rarity added, "However, Twilight has been missing for the past day, and Fluttershy for a few hours now, which is most unlike either of them."

"Indeed, I received this," Celestia levitated a small scrap of parchment with 'help!' scrawled on it in barely legible handwriting, "Only a few minutes ago, you never can trust a dragon to send post accurately in a hurry." Celestia suppressed a chuckle at this, reminded of the grave situation.

"Princess, I think that human has something to do with this!" Rainbowdash suddenly blurted.

"Human, but I sent him back to his homeland, I'm sure of it." Celestia affirmed, getting much more worried now.

"Well yeah, ya did," Applejack added, "But Nightmare Moon's back, again, and she's pulled a previous... version of John out from wherever."

"WHAT?" Celestia burst out, almost setting the surrounding grass on fire.

"Well... The John we know has this scar from a war wound he got, and this new John don't." Applejack explained, Celestia's expression a mixture of anger and genuine fear.

"Is there a problem, Princess?" Rarity asked, very perturbed at her usually regal leader's sudden lack of composure.

"Damn straight there's a fucking problem!" Celestia shouted, before spluttering slightly, embarrassed, "I mean, indeed there is, my little pony."

"Oh... My." Was all Rarity could muster, all four of the ponies stared in bewilderment at the princess.

"Guards!" Celestia called, the two pegasus guards who accompanied her stepped forward. "Summon the Black Watch, inform them that an inter-dimensional invader is on the loose in Ponyville and is to be magic'd the fuck up... I mean, disposed of, on sight!"

With that, Celestia teleported herself and the two guards into thin air. The four ponies left simply looked between each other, none knowing what to say.

* * *

><p><strong>Oh sweet Celestia, what did I just write? Anyway, sorry about another long wait, don't really have an explanation for this one except that writing the capturing stories is getting harder since they're all very similar, which is part of the reason the Black Watch is now in the fray. Don't worry, you'll find out plenty about them in the next chapter.<strong>

**Please leave a review if you don't want to be magic'd the fuck up.**


	17. Captain Dark Star

"Captain Star, we've had an order to mobilise a small force and deploy it to a small town by the name of Ponyville." A Unicorn sat at his desk, in his office which was situated in a particularly mysterious part of Canterlot. This building had never been entered by any unauthorised ponies, at least, none had the chance to say so, anyway. This building was the Black Watch headquarters.

"Details?" Captain Dark Star was the current highest ranking member of the Black Watch, he had more practical experience than many of his underlings combined, serving Celestia diligently from the hushed-up border spats with the Griffins in the 980's, to the cover up of the incident between certain frontier ponies and a pack of Buffalo, fondly named the 'Appleloosa Artillery' Incident.

As for looks, Dark Star fit the bill for a Captain of the Black Watch. He of course had a pitch black coat, with a dull brown mane, cut short, not dissimilar to Big Macintosh's, but kept notably more in shape. His cutie mark was a blood red sword, pointing directly downwards, backed by a matte grey five-point star. His eyes were a light hazel colour, well, the one not covered by an eyepatch was. As was compulsory for Black Watch members, he was a Unicorn.

"Sir, it appears this one comes down from Celestia herself." The administrator, who was only very new to this at this point, read the parchment he was levitating carefully.

"Watchpony, all our orders come down from either Celestia or Luna, and since the latter is AWOL, that makes it a sort of no-brainer, doesn't it?" Dark Star had lost patience with this particular member many days ago.

"Sorry, sir, this one details a lone inter-dimensional warrior, there's a possibility that he's attempting to capture the six Elements of Harmony, and has succeeded with two so far."

"Interesting... Any visual signs we can look out for?" This mission had peaked Dark Star's interest, he made a mental note to lead this personally.

"Apparently, we're looking for a bipedal creature, about six feet tall, with 'arms' similar to those found on a Dragon, Diamond Dog, Griffin-"

"Yes, yes, I get the picture, Watchpony." The term 'Watchpony' referred to any member of the Black Watch who had not risen to the level of a Captain or Manager. Watchponies consisted of two man types, Guard Watchponies, or Guardsponies for short, or Desk Watchponies, or Deskponies. Captains were elevated Guardsponies who led the troops, and Managers, elevated Deskponies who handled the cover ups and organisational staff required of the operation.

"Right sir, what size force should I mobilise?" The Deskpony looked to his superior.

"Send four Guardsponies, I'll lead them." Dark Star commanded before leaving the office room to the barracks. The Deskpony went about the business of organising the troops, while Dark Star slipped into his customary Black Watch armour.

The armour consisted of a rather unorthodox arrangement, or so a Royal Guard would think. Black Watch members prided themselves on their anonymity while on duty, and their attire reflected that. The helmet was more functional than ornate, consisting a metal case that fit a pony's head snugly, in the front was a red tinted slit that spanned both the eyes. The bodysuit was matte grey, as was the helmet, it was a skin-tight jumpsuit accentuated by various plates of black armour in certain areas, mainly the legs, back and chest. The armour plates were segmented so as not to sacrifice mobility for the user.

The Captain's armour was slightly different, the body piece was identical, but in place of a full-face helmet, the Captain wore a grey fabric mask over his mouth and nose, and a squared cap over his head, leaving his eyes plain to see.

Black Watch weaponry was non-existent, sort of. In place of physical weapons such as swords, Black Watch members used their magic to either incapacitate, subdue, or even kill a target. Killing was frowned upon among the Black Watch, mainly because of all the paperwork that was involved.

Almost as soon as Dark Star had been kitted up, his entourage of four entered the room, each was also ready for deployment, on account of Guardsponies wearing the body piece while on duty, active or not.

"Listen up ponies, we've got a class two incursion, so stay sharp, don't want to have to write to your mothers tonight." Dark Star kept his Guardsponies on a need-to-know arrangement for most missions, if not all.

"Sir, what's class two again?" One of the Guardsponies asked.

"Class two means an unconfirmed class one." Dark Star explained.

"Class one being?"

"Sweet Celestia, shouldn't you know this by now?" Dark Star sighed, "Class one means we have a potentially lethal invader, and we are to kill on sight." Some of the Guardsponies murmured to each other at this.

"Right, sir." The Guardspony replied.

"All good? Let's teleport then, on three..."

* * *

><p>John awoke with a start, something which had become a mainstay in his life for a couple of weeks now. He was alone in a room not much larger than a broom cupboard, what it was doing in an ancient royal castle caused John both bafflement and apathy in equal measure.<p>

Regardless, John pushed the door open, where he emerged in a familiar corridor. The only other doors to this hall were directly opposite him and at the two farthest ends, one led to the main gate, the other to the room he kept his acquired ponies in.

John decided to first, check up on the ponies, ask them if they were hungry (he didn't want them dying of starvation after all), then go and get another pony.

Twilight was awake, she had been for about an hour now, Fluttershy was still asleep, as she had been almost since she arrived. Twilight's ears pricked as the door to the room was swung open and her captor strolled in.

"Mornin'." John said nonchalantly, almost as if he wasn't holding the two against their will. "You hungry?"

"Excuse me?" Twilight was a little perplexed at this, was her jailer offering to get her food now?

"You hungry? Y'know, food, sustenance, eat."

"Yes, yes, I know. Yes we are, very." Twilight's voice held more contempt than it did surprise.

"Well, what do you ponies eat?"

"Uhh, grass, a few flowers, fruits..." Twilight rattled off the first edible foodstuffs that came to her mind.

"Alright, got it, be right back." With that, John left the castle briskly, leaving Twilight seriously confused.

John exited the castle and walked down the path to Ponyville, the shorter path, that is. On the way, he began to make a mental shopping list, things he'd need for capturing the last four elements.

'Hmm... Well I'll need some rope or something, food for me and the ponies, should probably make a fire in that room too, it's pretty bracing in there.' As much as he didn't want to admit it, John wasn't cruel, and he didn't ignore the ponie's wellbeing either.

As the small town once again came into view, John turned his mind to where he would find these items, he surveyed the town, no particular buildings offered themselves up as prime candidates, looks like he'd just have to bite the bullet and go shopping, in the early morning.

Many ponies were already up and about, some had jobs to go to, some were a little more care free, spending their time with friends or doing some shopping, after all, everypony likes to shop.

John kept to the alleyways, as he had done when he captured Twilight Sparkle all those days ago. This time, however, he had to be extra careful and make absolutely sure the coast was clear before moving anywhere in sight.

It was an hour before John had made any real progress, he'd spotted what looked suspiciously like a restaurant. Sneaking through an alley that led to the rear, John spied three large crates, they looked a lot like supply crates. He peered inside a half open one, sure enough, there was one sack labelled 'Grass' and another labelled 'Bread'.

Did ponies eat bread? John certainly did. He grabbed the two sacks and went to go back the way he came, the sacks weren't heavy, the bread was slightly more dense than the grass though. John peered out of the alleyway, seeing no ponies in immediate range.

"Hey!" A voice came from behind John, and he wheeled around.

"Wha-"

"I'll get you for taking my friends!" Before John could even think what was happening, he saw a blue streak heading straight for him, too fast to try and block, but at that speed it must be hard to change course. John ducked as the blue flyer whizzed over him, and into a nearby cart. The cart was almost atomised, and in the middle of a pile of broken wood, was the blue pony.

John recognised it, he'd seen this one before, talked to it even. Rainbow something? Whatever it's name was, John knew for sure it was one of the elements. The pony was dazed and stunned, lying groggily on it's back.

John pondered for a moment, it would look mighty suspicious for him to be seen carrying a pegasus out of town over his shoulder, someone must have noticed the disappearances already, after all. That was when John was struck by a genius plan.

He deposited the contents of the bread sack into the grass sack, it all just about fit, and he stuffed the woozy pony into the now vacant sack. He hoisted the two sacks over one shoulder and continued on his way.

Miraculously, he managed to exit Ponyville once again without incident, even avoiding a trio of foals this time, although he had made sure those three wouldn't be following him for quite some time.

As he walked through the forest, the sack on his shoulder started to fidget.

'God damn it.' John thought to himself, he thought he might be able to make it to the castle before the screaming started.

As if on que, the sack let out a tomboyish cry, now thrashing around quite violently.

"Shut up!" John yelled at the sack, not silencing it much, and certainly not making it move any less.

John held the sacks in both his arms now, and jogged to the castle, which was only five minutes away by his estimations. Sure enough, with only a minute or two of brisk pacing, the castle came into view, John kept the pace through the castle doors, and the hallway, and then into the room where he kept the other ponies.

"Who's that?" Twilight asked, worried about the screaming, thrashing sack in John's hands.

Instead of answering, John dumped the contents of the sack onto the floor.

"Rainbow Dash!"

* * *

><p><em>Meanwhile, in another part of Equestria...<em>

"Are we nearly there yet?"

"No, and we'd be a lot farther if you hadn't punched that Griffin in the face."

"Yeah, but you gotta admit it was funny."

"It _would_ have been funny if he wasn't a border guard."

"Whatever, man."


	18. You Weren't There, Part II

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight exclaimed, seeing her still slightly dazed friend scrambling to get on her hooves.

John took the now empty sack, removing the rope that tied up the open end. He dropped both the empty and full sacks onto the floor and held Dash in a choke hold, offering no means of escape.

"Hey!" Dash cried, desperately attempting to free herself, to no avail.

"Will you just sit still for one second?" John muttered through gritted teeth as he used the rope to tie up Dash's hooves.

Satisfied, John jumped off the struggling pegasus, not remembering that she was exactly that, a pegasus. Dash smirked inwardly and splayed her wings. She took off as fast as she could, without the use of her back legs to propel her, it was quite slow, slow enough that John could grab her tail and pull her back down onto the cold stone within a second.

"You're fast!" Dash commended, although her voice still belied the fact that she was severely pissed off.

John chose to ignore this comment, instead taking the rope off the full sack, and using it to tie up Dash's wings, allowing no movement whatsoever. He carried the now bundled up pegasus into the corner, where the other two still sat.

"Now just sit tight, you're gonna be here for a while so you'd better get used to it." John said calmly, almost patronisingly.

While Rainbow Dash opted for the silent response, John rummaged around in the sack that was now at his feet. From within it's depths, he pulled two generous clumps of long, fresh grass. He dropped them at Twilight's and Fluttershy's hooves, doing the same for Rainbow Dash with his now free hands. For himself, he yanked out a bread roll.

"So," Twilight mumbled through a mouthful of grass, "How long do you plan on keeping us here?"

"Minimum, until I get all six of you rounded up. Could take longer, I'm not the one calling the shots here." John replied, while removing his head gear.

"Then who is?" Rainbow Dash asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Same bitch I _supposedly_ killed before."

"Nightmare Moon?" Twilight exclaimed, eyes wide.

"You didn't know?" Rainbow Dash asked the unicorn.

"No! Did you?"

"Yeah, me and AJ saw her and John, this John, fighting. Didn't we tell you this?"

"No, you never mentioned it!" Twilight was shocked that two of her friend simultaneously forgot about the return of their arch nemesis.

"Huh." Rainbow Dash said, absent mindedly chewing on another blade of grass.

"So... You're doing this for Nightmare Moon?" Twilight asked, directing her questions back to John.

"Yeah, she's gonna kill her sister or some shit like that, and let me stay here."

"You can't let her kill the Princess!" Twilight cried.

"Why not?" Now it was John's turn to raise one eyebrow.

"Because she'll bring about eternal night!"

"So?"

"Ponies can't live in eternal night! No plants would grow, animals would never know when to wake up, it would be chaos!" John laughed inwardly, trying to comprehend the logic.

"Why does this Nightmare Moon have such a grudge against her sister anyway?"

"It was something that happened a long time ago, more than a thousand years."

"So... this has been going for a few generations then?" John found himself genuinely interested in what Twilight had to say.

"Well, not really, they're the same as they were back then."

"How'd you mean?"

"What she means," Rainbow Dash said, speaking up for the first time in this conversation, "Is that Celestia and Nightmare Moon are both over a thousand years old." John now openly laughed, it was a 'yeah that sounds believable' laugh.

"Something funny?" Twilight asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it's not very often someone lives a millennium, by which I mean it's impossible. On my world, that is."

"Your world's pretty boring, huh?" Rainbow Dash said bluntly.

"We make up for it."

"How?" Twilight asked, her intention being to learn much more of John's world.

"Wha'd ya mean?" John said quickly, swallowing a mouthful of bread.

"What do you have that we don't?"

"Why do you think I'm so hell bent on staying here?"

"Excuse me?" Twilight was confused by this sudden question.

"Mass genocide."

"Wha-"

"Nuclear annihilation."

"You'r-"

"_Two_ world wars."

"Why d-"

"Famine. Disease. Racism. Crime. Corruption. Conscription..."

"Joh-"

"For the past few months my life has revolved around death, where the first thought anyone thinks is whether they'll live to eat their next meal. I look at people I don't know and my first thought is whether he wants to fill my grave."

"Plea-"

"The only friends I've had are _dead_! All of them!" John was raising his voice aggressively now.

"Don't sh-"

"I have a son you know," John's voice lowered once again, "How many times do you think I've seen him? Hmm?"

"Lots I suppo-"

"ONCE!" John screamed at the top of his lungs. "John, I think it's best your son doesn't know about you," He was now impersonating a woman's voice, "It wouldn't be good for him to have a father in a war half a world away."

"Well maybe she was right!" Fluttershy said firmly, turning towards John, who had completely forgotten her presence.

"Wha-"

"Do you really think you're the type of colt a foal would want to look up to?"

"Remember what happened last time you took the firm approach?" John said menacingly, one hand his holstered pistol's grip.

"You blame all your shortcomings on this, this war. You say it made you who you are, no, _you _made you, nothing else." Fluttershy's words hit home, making John, for the first time in months, really question who he was.

"I- You really think this is just me, who I am?" His words sounded sincere, genuine, the words of a man who questions his very being.

"I think I can help." Twilight said, breaking the strange tension in the room.

"H-How?" John said, his voice uncharacteristically shaky.

"Here," Twilight motioned for John to kneel in front of her, "Fluttershy, you too."

The butter-coloured pony shuffled herself along, John knelt down next to Twilight, they both looked at her in anticipation. Twilight closed her eyes, her horn adopted an unearthly glow. The glow intensified until reaching an uneasy equilibrium, it stayed that way for a couple of seconds before intensifying tenfold, emitting a blinding flash.

John looked around wildly, he was still him, well, a ghostly transparent version of himself. The two ponies had adopted the same form, where John could see them, and yet see through them.

"Where are we?" John asked, looking around.

"I don't know, it's your memory." Twilight said matter-of-factly, as if John's question was idiotic.

"Huh, I don't remember th-" John's speech halted mid-word when he saw five soldiers walking down the dirt road towards them, the road was in an open plain, with rice paddies on the left and right.

"Oh man, they never let me near a case of beer again after that!" One of the soldiers said animatedly, the rest of them roaring in laughter. John recognised one of the soldiers as himself, Corporal Marsh, at the time.

"Hold up, movement ahead." The lead soldier said, while all five went down to one knee, scanning the terrain ahead for any movement. John strained to remember the name of the current leader. Captain something, he thought.

"Sir, I don't see nothin'" Another soldier said, in a southern accent even stronger than Applejack's.

"Stow it, Private." John whispered loudly, keeping his eyes to the left, where a raised up paddy loomed over them.

The five soldiers stayed like that for a minute, seeing no movement whatsoever.

"You sure you saw something, cap?" John whispered, not moving his eyes from the surround.

"Yes, no, maybe I dunno." The captain said uneasily, scanning directly ahead.

"We're sitting ducks out here, let's get to better cover while we can." Another solider pitched in, the rest nodding sagely.

"Alright, Marsh, point, let's move." John moved to the front of the pack, and the others followed in his wake. They kept their profiles low, still wary of an attack.

"Y'know, Captain," The second soldier in line said, "I think you're getting too old for this."

"Shut up, Priv-" An unmistakeable crack rang out, the Captain didn't get to finish his sentence before his brains became a mask for the soldier behind him.

"Sweet Jesus!" the soldier cried, wiping off bits of skull, blood and brain.

"Cover, now!" John shouted, as the next highest ranking member of the group, he assumed command.

The now four strong group dived into the nearest rice paddy, where they all lay behind a long mound, almost neck deep in irrigation water.

"Anyone see it?" A soldier asked, sounding as if he'd filled his underwear. Nobody said a word.

It seemed like an eternity before John saw something, a slight glint in a tree, at least two hundred metres away.

"There! Tree, dead ahead." John whispered loudly, all the solider trained their rifles on the tree.

"You sure Corpo-" The soldier stopped mid sentence when another crack went off, accompanied by a slight patch of water kicking up two feet from him.

All the soldiers saw the muzzle flash, from exactly where John had indicated earlier.

"Open fire!" John shouted, the ear-splitting sound of four M16s simultaneously firing filled the air.

The firing stopped when a figure, easily recognisable as a man, fell from the high tree, landing at the base.

"Clear!" John called, standing back up.

"Marsh, I think Cap's bought it." A soldier said.

"Like a queer in middle o' Houston." The southern soldier said grimly.

Ghostly John turned to the two ponies, who still stared at the scene, or rather, the bloodied corpse on the ground.

"See? You try spending months in a country where walking down a road could get your head blown off, then tell me it doesn't change you."

"I-I'm sorry, I thought maybe... Oh dear!" Fluttershy stuttered, she had taken John to be a bad person, when he was right all along. He wasn't evil, or mean or anything like that, just broken.

"I think we'd better go." Twilight said, lighting up her horn once again.

"Wait!" John exclaimed suddenly, Twilight's horn lost the glow.

"What, I there something wrong?" Wordlessly, John walked up to the ground of four who stood round the dead Captain, he joined them, slotting in between his other self and the southerner.

Twilight and Fluttershy just watched as John knelt down and patted the Captain on the shoulder.

"Sweet dreams, Cap." He said morbidly, before turning back to the two ponies. "Let's go."

Twilight nodded, and lit up her horn once again. The transition only took a couple of seconds, but they felt like an eternity to John, as much of his time in Vietnam always had.

"Wakey wakey!" John heard a female voice say, his eyes cracked open to see Rainbow Dash staring back at him.

"Ugh... What?" He asked impatiently, feeling suspiciously like he was hungover.

"You lot must need to catch up on some sleep, one second Twilight was doing a spell, the next, you're all taking an afternoon nap!" Dash's voice had a slight tinge of teasing in it.

"That's all part of the spell, Dash." Twilight said groggily.

"Is the headache part of it too?" John asked.

"I'm afraid so."

John sighed, these Equestrians were so innocent, so new to the idea of war, of the suffering it brings, he felt bad in a way, for being brought upon them.

"D'you understand now, why I can't go back?" He asked quietly.

"I think I do," Fluttershy squeaked, "But there are better ways to do that than to help an evil villain."

"I'd like to agree with you, but I can't risk your ruler sending me back again, that is, if she really did do it last time." John looked hopeful, as if he wanted the tale of his other self to be nothing but a myth.

"It's true, all of it, I'm sorry." Twilight said dejectedly, as much as Celestia was right about John being unfit for Equestria, Twilight still held a great deal of contempt for her mentor's actions.

"Please, try to find another way." Fluttershy reiterated, looking at John with puppy dog eyes.

"Sorry, like I said, can't risk it." John was sad to say that fact, but it was entirely true, he couldn't risk it, not for a moment.

John got up once more, seeing that it was getting towards sundown.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat," He said while fitting his head gear, "But I gotta go fetch another one of your friends, I'll be back soon." He wasn't sure why he added the last part, it wasn't like they cared, nor did he. But somehow, he found himself feeling a connection to the three ponies in his captivity. Like he wanted to protect them.

* * *

><p><em>Again, in another part of Equestria...<em>

"We're not calling it that."

"Oh, and you have a better name for it, I suppose."

"Jimmy McMotherfucker would be a better name for it than yours."

"The hell it would, my name fits it perfectly."

"No, just no."


	19. Apples To Apples

John walked out of the room, and towards the castle's main door. About halfway between the two doors he stopped, thinking to himself.

'Hmm... Weren't these _Elements of Harmony_ supposed to be heroes or something? Someone must have noticed that three of them are missing by now...'

John pondered this to himself, also thinking whether this place had a dedicated military force. Just to be on the safe side, John backtracked into the room once again.

"That was quick." Rainbow Dash said sarcastically.

"You lot are some sort of heroes around here, right?" John asked bluntly.

"Well, sort of, I suppose." Twilight said, not wanting to be too boastful.

"Which means people are going to notice that you're gone."

"Probably, maybe even the Princess will notice, after all, I am her prized student." Twilight had now failed at not sounding boastful.

"Right... Well I guess I'd better take some extra precautions." John walked over to the altar in the opposite corner of the room, where he had placed his old clothes and his rifle. He swung the M16 over his shoulders, taking a couple of spare magazines and putting them into what seemed to be pouches of the flak vest specifically for that very purpose.

The heavy rifle weighed John down slightly, but not too much. Still, taking just the pistol would have been much easier. Without saying a word, John departed the castle for the second time, this time actually making it into the Everfree forest.

John opted to take the path he had used the first time, and the third. Being the quicker one, it took John only half an hour to make it out of the gloomy forest. The funny thing was, from the attitudes of the three ponies he'd already captured, the forest scared the living shit out of them, yet John hadn't seen a single scary thing about it. Perhaps he was just made of tougher stuff than the ponies.

John emerged from the trees onto the same series of foothill as he had done on his first excursion. The sun was high in the sky by now, it being just about 1 o'clock, give or take. John surveyed the landscape, as he had done before. It then occurred to him that the last two captures had been lucky finds, and he didn't have a clue where the rest of the other elements actually lived.

It was then that John looked around a little more. On his left was the forest edge, on his right were the rocky hills, and in front of him was the small town. Behind him, however, were apple trees as far as the eye could see. John gaped at the massive orchard that he had just gone and missed the last two days or so.

"Wait... Wasn't one of the ponies called Applejack?" He said to himself.

Well, Applejack had the word apple in it, and here was John, staring at a sea of apple trees.

'This must be the flukiest guerilla campaign ever conducted.' John thought inwardly, strolling down to the apple orchard.

The sheer amount of apples was mind boggling, how the ponies managed to harvest all of them without mechanised agriculture was anyone's guess.

Just as John thought that, the answer came in a jarring noise just ten feet ahead or so. John stopped in his tracks and darted behind the nearest tree trunk. A pony of considerable size had just kicked one of the trees, causing all the apples to somehow fall into neat piles in barrels placed around the trunk.

The pony itself was a bright red colour, with a short, golden brown mane and tail. His cutie mark was a cross section of a green apple. This pony also had one other distinguishing feature, he was one of the ponies with different hair on their hooves. Although from what John had seen so far, the hooves here were different to how they were on Earth, they seemed to be just the end of a leg, rather than exposed bone or whatever makes up a pony's hoof on Earth.

John decided that messing with this pony was not advisable, not because he wasn't up to the task, he could beat that pony's ass any day of the week, but because he really didn't want any unnecessary hassle right now.

John sneaked his way around the red stallion, making sure to time his movements for when the pony was most concentrated on either the tree he was going to kick, or picking up the barrels full of apples and placing them on the nearby cart. It took the best part of five minutes for John to get to a point where he didn't have to move silently, and he could just about see a roof over the crest of the next hill, to boot.

The roof was then joined by another, and the two became both a barn and a farmhouse, respectively. Just outside the farmhouse sat a snot green pony, an elderly one at that, fast asleep on a rocking chair.

'Heh, I get to another world and I still can't get away from the oldies.' John thought to himself jovially.

He decided to check the barn first for any sign of the pony he was looking for. He moved quickly from the edge of the orchard to the large barn doors. Satisfied that his presence was still under wraps, he creaked the door open.

John half expected it to be pitch black inside the barn, on the contrary, it was rather well lit courtesy of three windows on the left side. The actual interior of the barn was pretty spartan, as expected. A plough sat in the corner, along with some lengths of rope hung up on hooks on the wall.

'Well those would definitely be useful.' John thought to himself, unhooking the ropes and draping them over his shoulder Indiana Jones style, not that he knew who that was. He exited the barn through the doors at the other end, meaning it was only a quick dash from there to the farmhouse.

John moved a little more quietly as he passed the sleeping elderly mare. Although it would probably take a clap of thunder to wake her up, he still didn't want to take that chance. He crept through the door to the farmhouse, closing it behind him.

Inside it was quite spacious, the front door led to a sort of living room, with a staircase at the back. A door to the right looked like it led to the kitchen, which was as large as the living room. John stood stock still for a few seconds, trying to make out some sort of sound. His ears pricked up to some extremely muffled talking coming from upstairs.

With no way of hearing what was actually being said, John made for the staircase. It looked suspiciously rickety, and each one of the boards looked like it would give off an almighty creaking sound if stepped on. There was no other way though, and John didn't fancy climbing in through the window like he had done at the library. In the end he bit the bullet and began to climb up the stairs, making sure to place his feet carefully on each one.

Miraculously, he managed to make it up the staircase without so much as a mouse's squeak. It was now that John could work out which room the talking was coming from. Casting his mind back to few days ago, John thought he could recognise the voice of Applejack, the pony he was looking for.

As John crept up to the room, he pulled his M16 rifle from his shoulders, ready to use it more as a club than a firearm. He got closer to the door, which was wide open. He was about to storm in when he caught a few of the words being said.

"And I just can't think why he would do somethin' like that. I mean sure, he must be confused as anything, but still, he's John, and I love him sis, I really do."

'Shit. Shitty shit.' John thought to himself, now he had to march in there and cart off a lovestruck pony who had faith in him, life sucks sometimes.

Regardless, he peeped his head into the room, the orange pony he needed was sat on a chair, back facing him. She was facing a bed, in the bed was the olive coated foal he had rather unceremoniously knocked out the other day.

'Now that's a guilt trip.' John thought to himself, luckily, the foal was asleep, albeit with an icepack on her head.

John knew he had to just get on with the task in hand. He raised his rifle over his shoulder, poised to bring the butt into contact with the back of the orange pony's head. He crept up slowly behind the pony, who was still unaware of his being there.

Before she could sense him, he made the final step, at the same time as bringing the gun down onto the head. Applejack slumped forward onto the bed, knocked out cold. Luckily, the foal hadn't woken due to the commotion. John took the ice pack from the foal's head, figuring Applejack needed it more than she did right now.

He hoisted Applejack over his shoulder, with her head facing forward so he could keep the icepack pressed against where he had hit it. John turned towards the door. He was about to leave the room, when a weak voice stopped him.

"Don't go nowhere, sis." The voice was once again a southern accent, although it was clearly younger than Applejack's. John turned his head to see the foal in bed, reaching one hoof out to where her sister was just sat. The foal's eyes were still closed, although he could see the worry in her face.

Sighing inwardly, John ignored the foal's pleas, instead opting to descend the stairs and make his way out of the house. Luckily, the elderly mare was still fast asleep, and John could make his was into the orchard in relative peace. He kept a wary eye out for the big red pony, but never saw him.

John retraced his steps, soon arriving on the hills between the town and orchard, and then entering the Everfree forest. He didn't pay much attention to the journey, the fleeting words from that foal back there had stolen his concentration.

His mind continued to be on leave until a slight stirring from the pony over his shoulder snapped him back into reality.

"Wha- Where?" Applejack said groggily, her vision still swimming. John remained silent and kept walking.

"Applebloom? Where are y'all?"

"She's safe." John finally said, his voice sincere. He wasn't lying, Applejack knew. Being the element of honesty tends to mean you can weed out the lies from the truth.

"Wait, who're you?" Applejack suddenly screamed, coming to the jarring realisation that she was slung over someone's shoulder.

"I'd have thought you of all peop... er, ponies, could recognise me." John said bluntly.

"Wait, y'all are a human, right?" Applejack was at least ninety percent sure that she was right, but there was no telling with the face attire.

"Affirmative."

"So ya must be..." Applejack stared at John, who simply cast her a sideways glance every now and then, the glances hidden beneath perspex goggles.

"I must be?"

"John?"

"That's me." John said as bluntly as before. He could have sworn that the pony over his shoulder pressed her body against him slightly more at the mention of his name. He shuffled the body away from him slightly to compensate.

"John, why... Why are ya doing this?" Applejack's cracking voice belied the hurt she felt.

"I'll let your friends explain, can't be going over the same fucking story five or six times."

"Please..." Applejack pleaded.

"Ugh! Alright, here's the short version. I'm capturing all of you Elements of Harmony so that Nightmare will let me stay here instead of sending me back to the war, clear?"

"So, you don't mind living in eternal night, that's how scared of your world y'are?"

"I really don't think Nightmare's going to go through with the whole eternal night thing, I mean, that's pretty stupid, even for a night god."

"Why?"

"Because everything'll die, don't wanna rain on your parade or anything, but shit needs sunlight, end of."

Applejack pondered this, visions of rows and rows of dead apple trees filled her mind, their branches shrivelled and black, totally devoid of fruit and foliage. John did have a point, there really is no point ruling a world where life can't survive.

"But surely Nightmare Moon can just make the plants grow in moonlight, she is a goddess after all." Applejack's counter-reasoning made equal sense in this world, unfortunately.

"Still, eternal night will probably get pretty boring after a few months or so."

"Not for a night goddess." John knew when he was losing an argument, this was a prime example.

"Well we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?" John said, his voice sounding slightly frustrated.

"I thought you were smarted than that, John." Applejack said accusingly.

"You don't know me."

"Don't I?" John's head wheeled around to face Applejack, he was about to reply when the castle loomed into view once again.

"Whatever, we're here anyway."

John dropped Applejack onto her hooves, then he rolled her over onto her back. She just stayed still and let him do whatever it was he was doing, besides, the contact was nice to her. The ropes suddenly around her hooves, however, were not.

"What in- Are you tying me up?" Applejack said suddenly.

"Of course, can't have you running off while I'm gone now, can we?" John finished tying the rope and lifted the pony up again.

John, unable to hoist Applejack onto his shoulder on account of her hooves being bound together, opted for a more unorthodox carrying style. He lifted Applejack up by the back and put her in a position best described as a cross between bridal style and battering ram.

The two went through the man door, with John walking briskly to the second door, leading into the main room. They entered the room with John closing the door behind them.

"Applejack!" Twilight Sparkle exclaimed, half surprised and half relieved to see her friend safe, sort of.

"Oh come on, AJ, I thought at least you could have given that lousy human the boot!" Rainbow Dash said accusingly.

"I would have said the same thing to you, Rainbow." The orange pony retorted while being placed next to the others.

"In all fairness, I did get the jump on her, same with the unicorn, actually." John said calmly.

"The name's Twilight Sparkle." Twilight interjected.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." John said, heading for the door once again.

"Wait, you're going again already?" Twilight asked, confused as to why he wouldn't want to rest for a while.

"No time like the present, eh?" John replied jokingly.

* * *

><p>"Hey, contact up ahead, check 'em out."<p>

"Wow, they're... They look like spec ops or some shit."

"They're probably looking for us."

"Why'd you say that?"

"Hunch."

"Alright then, let's go around."

"Uhh, scratch that, we've been spotted."

"Shit."


	20. Laughter, Generosity, Blood

**Before we start this chapter, can I just take a moment to say that I'm _so_ sorry this took so long to write, well, in all honesty it took me about four days from starting it to finishing it, but life just caught up to me in the past weeks and this slipped my mind completely. Anyway, enough of my shameless brown nosing, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

><p>John emerged from the Everfree forest for the umpteenth time in the past few days. He looked down at the sleepy town below. Now he truly had no leads on his final two targets, looks like some reconnaissance is in order. He traipsed down the hill, eyes still scanning the town for anything out of the ordinary.<p>

The town was bustling, it being mid-afternoon. Everypony seemed to be either returning home from a hard day's work, or shopping at the various stalls in the square market. There was no way John was making his way through there without being spotted, and he didn't really want to have to wait until nightfall.

He conjured up a pretty risky plan, unshouldering his rifle and making his way down the hill.

* * *

><p>Captain Dark Star stood outside Carousel Boutique, watching for any signs of suspicious activity. He had stationed two of his Guardsponies to stand watch at Sugarcube Corner, and the other two to scout the immediate area. This was quickly becoming uncomfortable for him, he didn't like to be in the public eye, especially while on a top priority assignment.<p>

He was about to head inside the boutique to make sure the Element of Generosity hadn't been kidnapped right under his nose when a muffled sound came from the centre of the town. It sounded like a fast tapping sound, but incredibly loud judging by the way it sounded off in the distance. Dark Star ran into the boutique, tot he surprise of the owner, who simply stared at him over a set of red rimmed glasses.

"Can I help you, Captain?" She asked expectantly.

"Ma'am, I must ask you to come with me, I believe you may be in danger."

"Ah, of course, allow me to gather some things first." Rarity fussed over a small chest on the other side of the room, while Dark Star rolled his good eye.

"Ma'am, there's no time, I must insist that you allow me to escort you to the town hall _immediately_."

"Right, yes, lead the way then." Rarity said, a little flustered at the sudden haste.

The duo made good pace towards the centre of town, where the tapping noises were becoming more frequent, accentuated by the unmistakeable crackling sound of stun magic going off. As they neared the town hall, they saw Pinkie Pie standing on the second floor balcony observing what appeared to be a firefight between the two Black Watch members and a window across the street.

The two Guardsponies were both hiding behind the corner of a building, occasionally popping their heads out to fire bolts of magic at the widow where the tapping noises were coming from. Although now the noises were much louder, more akin to a bang than a tap.

Dark Star ushered Rarity into the hall and joined his ponies behind the building.

"What's going on?" He asked the pony next to him.

"We think we've found the target, it's in that building." The pony pointed to the window where Dark Star could now see flashes along with the noises.

"Anything I should know?"

"It seems to be immune to our magic, or at least resistant to it, we managed to hit it with a stun bolt but it only worked for a second or so." The pony replied.

"Alright, we'll use the death bolts then." Dark Star said nonchalantly

"But sir, we'd need conf-"

"I gave you an order!" The Guardspony nodded and tapped the other on the shoulder, he gave a solemn nod to the pony, and both jumped out of the building corner, firing bolt after bolt of blood red magic.

Dark Star smiled slightly under his facemask, this could be the thing to earn him his promotion to general, General Dark Star, it had a ring to it. It was then that the Captain shook himself out of his stupour to see both his troops lying on the floor, one was in a pool of his own blood, his helmet shattered on the left side where a hole had been put in it, the other was rolling around, clutching his throat. The poor pony seemed to be drowning in his own blood.

Dark Star closed his eye in respect, before hastily making his way into the town hall, up the stairs and onto the balcony where the two ponies looked down at the spectacle in horror.

"Ladies, I need you to stay here, if our information is correct, it wants you alive." He reassured the two ponies who looked at him worriedly.

"Oh thank Celestia, but what about your two friends?"

"It's too late to help them, I'll most likely follow suit. If that happens, I need you to sta calm, and do whatever the thing wants, okay?" Both the ponies nodded, and Dark star turned to the door, eyeing it up, by now the creature would probably be inside the building.

* * *

><p>John slowly walked up the stairs of the building, watching for any signs of movement ahead. He pulled out the now almost empty magazine from his rifle and loaded a fresh one in. A door lommed ahead, and John put his ear up to it, listening for any sound. Muffled talking could be heard on the other side of the door.<p>

John readied his rifle, rolled his shoulder a couple of times and charged at the door. It came down easily, ripping right off the hinges as John had expected it to. Dark Star was caught slightly unawares by the speed of John's advance, finding himself staring down the barrel of John's gun.

"Don't move an inch, or I'll blow your brains out." John said to the pony menacingly. Dark Star ignored this, and fired a stun bolt at point blank range right into John's chest. The bolt stung quite a bit, but Nightmare Moon's magic resistance spell dissipated most of the effects.

John pulled the trigger in retaliation, expecting to redecorate the floor a new shade of red. Instead, a slight click was heard.

"Shit." Was all John got to say before the pony unleashed a barrage of five red bolts into his chest, John dropped his rifle and staggered backwards into the wall, sliding down to a sitting position.

The bolts felt like a surge of electricity coursing through his nervous system, seemingly shutting down any use of his appendages, save for the head. As soon as the sensation had arrived, it diappeared, leaving John free to use his arms ad legs again.

Unfortunately, this had given Dark Star the opportunity to pick up the M16 rifle with his magic and point it at John.

"Now, you're going to do what _I_ say, freak." Dark Star said menacingly, holding the rifle squared up against John's forehead.

John's training had prepared him better for this situation that Dark Star's had, and he pulled his pistol out of it's holster. Dark Star saw this, and pulled the trigger on the rifle. Another click.

John laughed openly and shot Dark Star in the head twice with his pistol, spraying sticky red blood over the floor of the balcony and causing the Black Watch captain to fall over the edge to his ultimate demise.

"Now, you two," John said while standing up, "down the stairs, double time."

The two ponies walked down the stairs, tears of shock and fear rolled down Rarity's cheeks, while Pinkie Pie remained uncharacteristically quiet.

"Get a shift on, before more special ops or whatever the fuck they were show up." He said harshly, the two ponies quickening their pace in fear.

"Please, don't hurt us..." Rarity said quietly to the monster following her.

"Just keep moving and I'll try not to."

As the three exited the town hall, they saw only a few ponies, all of whom were cowering in door ways or behind stalls, watching in horror as the murderous creature escorted two of their own towards the Everfree forest. Nopony tried to interfere, afraid that they too would end up in a pool of their own blood as the three adorning the street had.

John had to do little to keep the ponies moving, unlike his ordeal with Fluttershy. In fact, before they reached the forest all he had to say was which path to take. He was rather impressed by these two, at least he was until...

"Ooh!" Pinkie Pie suddenly squealed.

"What?" John asked, startled by the sudden noise.

"I haven't seen you before!"

"So?"

"Well if I haven't seen you before then that means you're new and if you're new that must mean you're lonely because I know everypony and I mean _everypony_ in Ponyville and if you're new that means you must have no friends so you must be lonely so you have to let me throw a super duper welcome to Ponyville party just for you will you let me huh, huh, huh?"

As Pinkie Pie spoke she bounced all over the vicinity like a ping pong ball on a caffeine drip.

"What. The. Fuck?" Was all John could say to the barrage of words he was still unravelling in his head.

"Well, are you gonna let me throw you a party?" The pink pony asked once again, a very childish smile adorning her face.

"Wha-uh..." John was about to flatly refuse, but that face... That damn face with the eyes sparkling full of hope and the cheeky smile, it was just too much to handle. "I'd... like that, uh, but we've got to do some shit so... maybe just start planning it... Tomorrow?"

John hoped that she wouldn't be put off by his unsure approach, but his fears were laid to rest when-

"YAY! It's gonna be the super duper awesome fun you ever had! There'll be cake and balloons and pin the tail on the pony _wait_ you're not a pony and if you're not a pony that must mean you play pin the tail on the hoo-man but you don't have a tail so you can't play pin the tail on the hoo-man oh well we'll just have to play other games like bobbing for apples or dance HUUAAGH! I bet you can dance really well with just two legs can't you? Wait Spike only has two legs and he can't dance very well at all oh well maybe you're better at dancing than Spike but _please_ don't tell Spike I said that because he's such a super awesome friend except for his dancing and I don't want him to feel like I don't like him you won't tell him WILL YOU?"

Suddenly John found the pink visage thrust into his entire field of vision once again, except this time instead of the hopeful demeanour, the pony's pupils had dilated to what seemed to be an unhealthy size, and looked up at him pleadingly. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite sure exactly what she wanted from him.

"Uh..." He looked around, suddenly remembering the other pony in their company and looking to her for guidance. At first Rarity turned away from him with a humph, but then she noticed that if he said yes, Pinkie Pie would have her feelings hurt, and Rarity didn't want that, not one bit.

"Say no, dear." She whispered in his ear so the pink one couldn't decipher what she had said.

"Uhh... No?"

"YAY! Oh thank you thank you _thank you!_ You're the best friend _ever!_"

John then noticed that in the time they had had the conversation, the castle they were travelling to had come into view.

"Finally, inside." John instructed with a relieved sigh. Now maybe he could get out of this whole ordeal and settle down to a nice quiet life. Maybe he'd spend the rest of his days trying to work out if the plants really do grow in eternal night, or something like that.

They walked, or trotted in two of their cases, through the stone gateway and into the room where the others sat. Gasps of mild shock occurrence as the two ponies walked into the room to see their friends, followed by John.

"Oh girls, we were so worried about you all!" Rarity said with a gasp, seeing her four friends individually tied up in the corner.

"Rarity, Pinkie Pie, we were worried about you two too." Twilight said dejectedly.

"I guess this means Nightmare Moon's won." Applejack sighed, looking at the floor.

"Indeed it does, foals!" A disembodied voice boomed.

The six ponies looked to the ceiling in terror as an inky black smog materialised into the very figment of their nightmares, the dark goddess Nightmare Moon.


	21. Here, At The End Of All Things

"Ok, I let it side the first time, but can you not say foals instead of fools?" John said to the goddess now landing on her hooves.

"I don't see what the problem is." Nightmare said coolly.

"Course you don't, whatever, forget I said anything."

"Indeed, and now, my _little_ ponies, we will go and visit your precious princess!" Nightmare Moon spat the last word out as if it left a particularly bad taste in her mouth.

"How are we getting there?" John asked the princess.

"Hmm, I _was_ going to just teleport us there, but since you were so invaluable in this endeavour, I'll let you decide."

"Can you still grab shit from my world?" John asked with an eyebrow raised under his mask.

"Indeed I can, why, what do you need?"

"Well, I would have suggested something that made an impact, I mean, you're not going to commandeer a whole fucking country without a significant show of force now, are you?" John reasoned, although nopony else seemed to know what he was on about.

"Your point being?"

"Well I would have originally suggested a battle tank or something like that, but I'm not sure if this lot's gonna fit in one." John said while gesturing to the six tied up ponies.

"Hang on," Nightmare Moon's horn glowed deeply as she closed her eyes, envisioning a 'battle tank', "I can't seem to see one very clearly, could you elaborate on this _battle tank_?"

"Sure, United States Army Model Forty-Eight Patton tank."

Nightmare Moon closed her eyes once more, her horn adopting the glow again.

"I see it, very fitting... Although I think it could do with a new colour." The goddess said absent mindedly.

"Women, always the same." John sighed, with a small smile gracing his lips.

"Excuse me?" Rainbow Dash suddenly piped up, seemingly annoyed at his apparent sexism.

"I said that women are always the same, by which I meant you always focus on the unimportant shit like colour instead of staying on task." John said much louder than the original remark. Rainbow Dash simply rolled her eyes and adopted an irritated expression.

"Well the 'battle tank' seems an appropriate suggestion, the Elements of Harmony can sit atop the contraption if needs be, I assume you know how to operate one?" Nightmare Moon asked, breaking the quickly escalating tension in the room.

"I've got basic training in driving one, but I won't be able to operate the main gun." John explained.

"So shall I summon one?"

"Go for it."

A dark glow appeared on Nightmare Moon's horn, filling the room. After a few seconds had passed, the glow subsided and a loud bang, followed by a thump was heard from the direction of the castle gates.

* * *

><p>"Alright, this should be the place."<p>

"You mean to say that we have to climb that huge fucking mountain?"

"'Fraid so, but we're not getting it done by standing here."

"Right you are."

* * *

><p>John walked slowly out of the castle, with Nightmare Moon following behind levitating the six ponies behind her. As they exited the castle, a menacing sight greeted them.<p>

The M48 Patton tank was facing the castle doors, it's main gun pointing directly at the group. From the point of view of the ponies, it almost looked like it was staring at them, John had no such fear though.

He clambered up the hull of the tank and heaved the top hatch open. As he lowered himself into the crew space of the vehicle, he gestured Nightmare Moon to follow suit. She levitated the six ponies onto the top of the hull and sat atop it herself, figuring she wouldn't comfortably fit in a machine designed specifically for humans with so little room to spare.

After a short length of time the machine roared to life, then engine situated in the back of the hull growling like an angry lion and billowing plumes of smoke from the exhaust vents.

"Ready?" An echoed voice shouted over the roar of the engines.

"Proceed." Nightmare Moon replied, using her magic to overcome the need to raise her voice.

With that order, the tank began to wheel around on it's axis, the left track rolling forwards while the right track rolled back. To John it was just a fact of life that machinery could work like this, to the ponies, the rumbling machine was nothing short of a marvel.

The tank soon stopped spinning and rolled itself down the tried and trusted road John had used to travel to Ponyville numerous times. The road wasn't really designed for such a wide vehicle, or a vehicle at all. In fact, it wasn't designed. Occasionally, the tank rolled over a log or a large piece of stray wood, in every case, the obstruction either disintegrated under the mighty treads, or was simply shoved out of the way.

Nightmare Moon had seated her hind legs on the platform within the turret, allowing her upper half to poke out of the hatch, leaning her forelegs on the metal of the machine. The six ponies were restrained and attached to the outer hull by Nightmare Moon's magic, so nopony was falling off any time soon.

This didn't stop Fluttershy trembling like she never had in her life, she jumped every time the engine spluttered or a particularly large clump of smoke was coughed out of the vents. Twilight looked over the tank in intrigue, wondering just how it worked without magic. Applejack looked more apprehensive than anything else. Rainbow Dash seemed to wonder if the vehicle would go any faster than the not so impressive speed it was performing at the time. Pinkie Pie didn't seem to care, or notice what was going on around her. Rarity simply wondered why anypony would make something so garish and smelly as the machine she was currently tied to.

Within ten minutes, the tank emerged from the thick forest, and ground to a halt. Nightmare Moon looked down for a second, seemingly wondering why the tank had halted. As if on que, the machine moved again, gaining more speed than it had done before. The hill down towards Ponyville cause the machine to pick up yet more speed, until it was moving much faster than the running speed of a pony, even getting towards the upper cruising speed of a pegasus. Of course, this speed was much more intimidating than a pegasus due to the sheer size and aesthetics of the vehicle.

Because of this fact, much of Ponyville erupted in widespread panic as the tank rumbled towards the town. Ponies all over the town locked up shops, barred windows and dashed for the safest areas they could find. The tank, however, simply roared through the town, leaving no more devastation than two track marks and a great trail of dust in it's wake.

Some of the braver ponies who poked their heads out of their hiding spots noticed six of the town's more illustrious inhabitants seated and seeming bound atop the almighty machine. Gasps and whispers were drowned out by the roaring of the engine as the tank sped through the town, even rolling over a local newspaper stand without much notice of the flimsy wooden structure, the tracks pulverising the wood and paper like it were nothing.

Within less than two minutes, the tank had exited the main space of the town and was rolling down the road towards Canterlot, nestled high up in the mountains. It took a good few minutes for ponies to trust that the 'monster' had departed, and emerge from their dwellings.

* * *

><p>"Did we... Really... Have to climb... Up so... Fast?"<p>

"Yes, we did... I know it's tough, but... we're against the clock here."

"In what way are... We against... I'm seriously gonna pass out... The clock?"

"There, see?"

"So? It's just a carriage coming up the road... Which _we_ could have used!"

"No, it's going too fast for a carriage, and see the dust trail?"

"Yeah, I see it."

"It must be a powered vehicle, wait... That's a tank, that's a fucking tank!"

"You've got to be kidd- You're not kidding, that's an actual tank."

"Come on, we're out of time."

* * *

><p>The tank rolled up the road to Canterlot, decreasing in speed a little but not having any trouble with the gradient. As the Equestrian palace drew near, Nightmare Moon could almost taste her victory. Finally, she would get what she wished for, the ultimate destruction of her egotistical sister and control of Equestria wrested into her grip. She couldn't help but grin evilly at the prospect.<p>

The tank continued to roll up the road, soon arriving at the palace gates.

"That gate looks pretty solid." John called from the bowels of the tank as he climbed into the turret.

"Can you open it?" Nightmare Moon asked inquisitively, as John seemed to be searching around in the turret.

"Yeah, should be able to. You know how I said I can't use the main gun?"

"I remember, yes."

"Well I meant that I can't use the gun while I'm driving, I know how to use this thing. I was originally gonna be in the armoured corps until _someone_ decided it's be a good idea to volunteer for the marines."

"I don't follow you." Nightmare Moon said as John found his quarry, a frankly massive bullet shaped thing.

"In a nutshell, it would have been my job to operate these machines, but I enlisted with the marines when Nile did."

"Who's Nile?" John either didn't hear this, or ignored it as he wheeled the turret to aim squarely at the impressively sized lock on the gates. By this time, some ponies from within the castle had seen or heard the machine sitting outside the gates, and had come to get a look.

"Fire in the hole!" John cried as he let the cannon rip. The tank rocked backwards significantly, the armour piercing round flying from the barrel into the gate's locking mechanism.

Needless to say, the gate didn't stand a chance. The round obliterated the lock, the leftover inertia causing one gate to swing open and the other to fall off it's hinges. John poked his head past Nightmare Moon's chest to check if the round had worked.

"Right, off we go then." He said as he descended into the tank once more.

* * *

><p>"Look, the tank's stopped outside the gates."<p>

"Good, maybe it's gonna get locked out."

"Doubt it, see? Turret's spinning."

"I see it, is it gonna blow the gates open?"

"I suppose it- Yes! Yes, it just did."

"I guess we're out of time then."

"Not quite."

* * *

><p>The tank rolled past the now destroyed gates, ponies everywhere ran for whatever safety they could find, much in the same way Ponyville's inhabitants had. The tank paid little notice to this as it rolled up towards the main palace door. It ground to a halt outside the doors.<p>

"Same again?" John asked Nightmare Moon as he once again climbed into the turret compartment.

"I don't see why not." Was the reply. John nodded and rammed another armour piercing round into the chamber. He remained stoically silent this time as he fired the round off. Screams of terror were heard as the tank gave an almighty boom from the front, and shattered the golden gates into a million pieces.

"Huh, they were pretty brittle." John remarked as he clambered out of the tank, Nightmare Moon doing the same first.

"They weren't real gold, just gold coated wood." Nightmare Moon explained. She and John walked through the gates, with her still levitating the Elements of Harmony behind her. All of them remained silent, Fluttershy not out of choice, she had just passed out.

The royal guards didn't harass the group much, those that did were swiftly thrown aside by Nightmare Moon, their comrades wisely turning their attention elsewhere.

The group of eight arrived outside the ornate doors to the throne room, Nightmare Moon threw them open with vigour. Inside was a long room, it's arched ceiling at least thirty metres above the floor. Six pillars flanked a red carpet that extended from the door way to the elevated throne.

Sat on the throne, was Princess Celestia, who was currently staring daggers at the night goddess now walking along the carpet.

"Sister." She said coldly, knowing that her fate was now sealed.

"You are powerless, big sister, Equestria is now mine and you know it!" Nightmare Moon said venomously.

"Indeed, will you banish me to the sun, perhaps?"

"Nothing so melodramatic, sister, I intend to let my new friend here deal with your demise." Nightmare Moon gestured to the human stood behind her and the six ponies who were now sitting next to Nightmare Moon, three on each side.

"Ah, yes. Sergeant Marsh. I see Captain Dark Star was unsuccessful." Celestia said calmly, turning her attention to John.

"The guy with one eye?" John asked, Celestia nodding in affirmation, "Yeah, he's dead."

"By your hands?"

"Of course."

"I see." Celestia said, turning her attention back to her glaring sister.

"If this is what you truly want, sister, then let's get on with it."

"Princess, you can't ju-"

"Hush, my faithful student," Celestia said, looking to Twilight, "Believe me when I say everything will be fine in the end."

"Not for you, sister." Nightmare Moon interjected, "John, kill her.

"As you wis- mmf!"


	22. Love Is In The Air

"John, kill her."

"As you wis- mmf!"

"John?" Nightmare Moon looked around to her human assistant, only to see him in the grip of another of his own kind.

The human holding him had one hand over his mouth, and the other on a handle, connected to which was a knife blade plunged between John's neck and collarbone. The soldier was dressed in tatty olive drab combat clothing, similar to John's original attire. He had a mess of blonde hair currently hidden under a helmet. His blue eyes seemed to be looking sidelong at his victim, who's whole body had tensed up from having a knife stuck in his neck.

The soldier decided to finally let the poor man die, pulling the knife out in a forward motion, slicing the throat open and removing the blade all in one swift, clean motion. Blood sprayed over the floor a little, and much more poured out of the wound as the man let John drop to the floor like a rag doll.

Only a couple of convulsions later, John's bloodied body ceased to move altogether, and went limp in the middle of an ever expanding puddle of blood. Applejack couldn't believe her eyes, this John may not quite have been the man she loved, but he was better than nothing by a long shot, and seeing him die in such an undignified way made her want to cry until she couldn't speak.

All she managed, however, were a couple of misty eyes, and a tear rolling down one cheek.

"Hmm, another human. Interesting as that is, I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you." Nightmare Moon said menacingly.

"Can't let you do that, bitch." A voice from behind Nightmare Moon made her wheel around again.

The voice belonged to another soldier, again dressed in tatty olive clothing. His messy brown hair was held back by a mud stained white headband and his hazel eyes bore angrily at Nightmare Moon.

"You _again_?" Nightmare Moon exclaimed, staring in wild disbelief at the soldier standing before her.

The Elements of Harmony could scarcely believe their eyes, especially Applejack. There stood John, the real John, the John who she had fallen madly in love with, and who had been cruelly taken away from her after saving the world from eternal night.

John stood stock still, a strange contraption in his hands. It seemed to be a long cylinder, with a larger chamber in the centre, and an awkward handle and trigger mechanism at the back. The instrument obviously wasn't designed for human use, and was made of pure white metal.

"Don't just stand there, Marsh. Fire the Rainbow Death Cannon at her!" The blonde soldier shouted.

"God damn it, Nile, we're not calling it that!" John retorted as he pulled the trigger.

The device fired a rainbow of about one hundred different colours, all of them blending seamlessly together. The beam impacted Nightmare Moon square in the chest, drawing an inky deep purple substance from her. She made no noise or movement as the substance was bled from her chest, her form slowly shrinking and deforming to become not Nightmare Moon, but Princess Luna.

As the last of the substance was removed, John dropped the strange contraption to the ground. It began to glow a brilliant white, before a few seconds later imploding in the blink of an eye. In just a few short seconds, Nightmare Moon was gone, for good. Replaced by Princess Luna.

No words were spoken, no movements made for a couple of seconds after the event. Luna's ragged breathing was the loudest sound in the room. It was at that moment that John took the time to survey the scene, there was Princess Celestia to his immediate right. Nile stood over a bloodstained corpse dressed in futuristic black armour in the centre of the room, casually wiping down his blade with a rag cloth. Finally, John noticed a few ponies he recognised, although he wasn't sure of all their names.

There were six ponies, placed at the feet of six pillars in the room. To John's left, a pink one with a bouncy-looking mane, farther to the left, the pegasus he dubiously remembered as Rainbow Dash. At the end of his left side, a pure white pony whose name escaped him.

On the right, across from the white pony was a butter yellow one with a long pink mane who appeared to have passed out, in the middle right was the purple unicorn John had come to know as Twilight Sparkle.

Then there was the pony to his near right. A pony whose face occupied his dreams since he had last seen her. A pony who just the thought of made him brave a journey across a strange and alien world, through Hell and high water. A pony whose face he couldn't wait to see again.

Applejack felt a little awkward at the time. She looked up at the man, her emerald eyes sparkling in the moonlight. John stared back at her, seemingly wanting to say everything to her, and yet saying and doing absolutely nothing. The both of them felt frozen in time, doomed to their thousand yard stare for eternity.

The eternity was broken when John took a couple of shaky steps towards the orange pony, drawing his combat knife from his belt as he did so. He took three more steps, almost drunkenly. The final step had him bearing over Applejack, still just staring into her eyes.

Without a care for anything around them, he fell to his knees, coming eye-to-eye with the pony in front of him. Carefully, he sliced the rope tying her hooves up. Applejack leapt forward as if she were spring loaded. Not expecting this, John was tackled to the ground in a flurry of orange.

John held on to the pony who was now on top of him with all he had, just as she held on to him, afraid to let go for fear of losing him yet again. John did nothing but lose himself in the soft orange fur of Applejack's shoulder, his right ear filled with the heart wrenching sound of soft sobbing, muffled by the shoulder Applejack's face was currently buried in.

"Shh, shh. It's ok now, I'm here." John spoke softly, tears streaming down his own face.

He carefully brought the two of them up into a sitting position, letting his back rest against the pillar nearby. Applejack finally pulled her face from his shoulder, where a substantial wet patch remained. They both stared into each other's eyes once more, tears still filling all four of them.

Without wasting another moment, Applejack thrust her lips to John's, slowing down into a tender kiss as both their eyes fluttered closed. John pulled Applejack further into his embrace, still keeping his lips pressed firmly to hers.

After what seemed like an eternity they broke apart, both gasping for air. Neither could help but let a smile cross their features, until Applejack sobered the mood a little by turning her smile into a sad expression.

"I thought... I'd never see you again." She said sadly, still staring into his eyes.

"You think I wouldn't cross worlds just to see you again?" John said, his smile remaining, and infecting Applejack's face once more.

"More like couldn't." She chuckled, regaining some of her token confidence.

John looked over Applejack's shoulder, where she too followed his gaze. Standing in front of the pair were five of Applejack's friends, Princess Celestia, and Nile. All of them, even Nile, had the most beaming of smiles imaginable.

"You know what this calls for?" Pinkie Pie suddenly chirped, bouncing in front of the two lovers.

"I dunno, wh-" John began.

"A PARTY!"

* * *

><p>Later that evening, Sugarcube Corner had been decked out in a tornado of multicoloured party paraphernalia. Balloons hovered a foot off the ground, streamers made it hard to see the ceiling, and there was enough punch to drown most of Ponyville in.<p>

Invitations had been handed out to everypony, and I mean _everypony _in Ponyville, and what self respecting partygoer would want to miss a 'glad you're not dead and neither is your friend and glad that Applejack's not sad anymore and glad that Nightmare Moon's gone for good' party?

John and Applejack stood side by side, pretty much in the centre of the room, both chatting animatedly to guests, all of whom wanted to know what had happened, whether the bad human was gone, whether Nightmare Moon was gone, and when the wedding would be. The final question making both man and pony blush furiously.

Nile seemed to be off to one side, explaining to three wide eyed fillies exactly how one might attain a surfing cutie mark, something which a former commanding officer of his was adamant to attempt in the immediate aftermath of a beachhead assault.

"Apparently Lance Armstrong was there, though I never actually saw him." Nile said excitedly.

"Who's that?" Scootaloo asked, enthralled in the story of surfing and just how good napalm smells before noon.

"Famous surfer, no one rides a wave like Lance, let me tell you."

"I bet I could ride a hundr'd foot wave!" Applebloom said proudly.

"Heh, you gotta find a hundred foot wave first, kiddo. Even then you'll end up with a wave-finding cutie mark before you've touched the water."

"I bet nopony's ever had a wave-finding cutie mark before!" The small farm filly said ecstatically.

* * *

><p>A couple of hours later, most of the guests had wandered home, utterly shattered from partying the night away. All those that were left consisted of the Elements of Harmony, the cutie mark crusaders, Mr and Mrs. Cake and the two soldiers. Oh, and Gummy, of course.<p>

"Well, if nobody minds, I'm gonna go light up." Nile said, stretching his arms.

"You'll wanna save them, buddy, don't think anyone makes 'em here." John warned.

"Well you'd better be prepared for a visit from Mr. Grouchy in a couple weeks time then." Nile laughed, the laugh spreading to John. None of the other ponies seemed to get the conversation.

The rest of the group continued the conversation they were engaged in for about ten more seconds before a certain rainbow maned pegasus shifted away slightly.

"I'm, uh, gonna get some fresh air." Rainbow Dash said, almost nervously.

"You think the punch went to her head?" John joked as the pegasus left the building. They all shared a laugh, save for the three fillies who hadn't the slightest clue what the reference was toward.

Rainbow Dash exited the front door into the pleasantly cool night, having so many ponies in one room tended to make it rather stuffy. She looked around a little and saw Nile leaning against a signpost just to the right of the building, a cigarette in hand.

"Hey." She said, sounding a little unattached.

"What's up?" Nile replied.

_Play it cool, Rainbow, play it cool._

"You're Nile, right." She asked, scuffing a hoof on the pavement idly.

"Yup. Jack Nile as a matter of fact." Nile responded. "And you're... Don't tell me... Rainbow Dash."

"That's right, you remembered my name!" Dash squealed a little.

"So what can I do for you on this fine evening, Miss Dash?" Nile asked mockingly formally.

"Oh please, just call me Rainbow. Or Dash. Or Rainbow Dash."

"So what can I do for you on this fine evening, Rainbow or Dash or Rainbow Dash?" Nile mocked once more, causing a giggle to escape Rainbow Dash.

"Well, heh. I was just wondering if you wanted to, uh, maybe go for a drink sometime, with me, just the two of us." Rainbow Dash asked, avoiding Nile's gaze which was now fixed squarely on her.

"Y'know what, Dash, I'd like that." He said while flicking away the butt of his cigarette. Rainbow Dash beamed at the soldier.

"Really?"

"Sure, are we talking a drink, or a _drink_?"

"Let's see where the drink leads us, eh?" Dash said, almost seductively.

Nile suppressed a grin as he re-entered the cake shop, followed by an quietly ecstatic Rainbow Dash.

"Hey Nile!" John called as the two reached the top of the stairs, "What was the name of that officer who got stoned every night?"

"Oh, you mean Ganja Clark?"

"That's the one, Ganja Clark. What a guy he was." John said, reminiscing about some good times in the officer's mess.

"I still can't believe you got to be a Sergeant while I stayed a Private, Marsh." Nile joked.

"I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation as to why I'm so much better than you." John laughed back.

Silence fell after the laughter subsided, leaving a rather sober atmosphere.

"Well, I guess we should get home." Twilight said suddenly, spying a sleeping dragon in the corner of the room.

"Yeah I should probably hit the hay too." Rainbow Dash agreed while suppressing a yawn.

Various mutters of agreement wafted around the room as the guests slowly filtered out of the building, parting in their respective directions. Twilight had offered for Nile to sleep in the library's guest room for the time being, which he graciously accepted.

* * *

><p>John and Applejack slowly sauntered up the road to Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack carrying a sleeping filly on her back. The scenery of the town slowly transitioned to that of the orchard as they went. Neither spoke for the whole of the walk, both of them perfectly content just in each other's company.<p>

They soon found themselves just outside the farmhouse, where all the lights seemed to be off. It was the middle of the night, after all. The two entered the house a slowly crept up the stairs. Applejack deposited her sister in her bed, leaving her with a goodnight kiss to take to dreamland with her.

The remaining twosome crept into Applejack's room, and the pony hung her hat on the bed post, laying down of the soft mattress. She patted the spot next to her, which John occupied a second later. As soon as he had laid down, Applejack climbed on top of him, their faces mere inches apart.

"You fancy a coffee?" She asked innocently.

"Wouldn't it have been better to ask that before we got into bed?" John whispered back.

Applejack grinned sheepishly, leaned in close so that he muzzle was almost touching John's ear, and whispered;

"I don't mean that kinda coffee."


	23. Epilogue

John and Applejack stayed at Sweet Apple Acres together, at first, John helped here and there on the farm. Since tourism to Ponyville increased in the wake of recent happenings, the apple business made a lot more money, enough to fix saggy roofs, ploughs and hips aplenty.

Nile stayed with Twilight for a few weeks, until Rainbow Dash suggested they move in together and buy a ground based house in the town.

Following various meetings with both princesses, John and Nile were appointed at the brand new Ponyville Royal Academy, where Royal Guards were trained in hoof-to-hoof combat techniques and military discipline. A large building on the outskirts of town was re-purposed for the task, having the thatched roof replaced by a shallow tiled one and various amenities removed for a more Spartan feel. Both John and Nile made a decent living drilling recruit Royal Guards into shape, and in the process earned the respect of ponies far and wide for their role.

Outside the building, on a large marble pedestal sat the M48 Patton tank, it's polished and repainted exterior gleaming in the Ponyville sun. An odd tribute to the ingenuity and toughness of the human race.

Twilight Sparkle published the book _Inter-dimensional Species: The Human Race_, which made her one of the most celebrated authors of recent times, the book becoming a national best seller.

And so life moved on in the quiet town of Ponyville, though the whole of Equestria was forever changed, for good and bad, by the arrival of two strange creatures from another world.

Two strange creatures from out of the jungle.


	24. Author's Note

Hey guys and gals, I'd just like to say what a pleasure it was to write this story for all of you, it really has been a wild ride!

As always thanks a bunch for reading this story, especially those who favourited or added to their alerts. A really big thanks to anyone who reviewed the story, that's the fuel that keeps the story engine running after all. You guys really did a great job of reviewing, dropping some well appreciated praise and, of course, pointing out what I could have done better, which I also appreciate immensely.

A special shout out to some of my favourite reviewers and fellow authors,

Michael Blackburn- This really is the guy you have to thank for this story having less than half the historical inaccuracies it would have, he's been a gentleman and a scholar for most of the writing process, and I can't thank him enough! Also, if you're a Halo fan, you'll want to look up both his stories, after all, one contains a cameo from everyone's favourite GI!

HitBrother- A real motivator for much of the story, always making sure to send a kind word or some good advice my way. If you're a fan of Rio or Regular Show, you'll want to check into their profile.

Maria Steinheart- My very first signed reviewer, and a dedicated one from thereon, if you're into Spyro the Dragon or are perhaps struggling to find a Star Fox and MLP crossover, head over to this author's profile.

Major Simi- Another dedicated reviewer who really helped cut down times between chapters with his encouragement. Any self respecting Stargate fan would do well to check out this author's profile.

Rising Bashir- A great reviewer, one who always has me itching to write the next chapter. This one saw chapter nine coming a mile off, but then again, who didn't?

Brad The Hunter- This reviewer has been a great source of encouragement throughout the story, not to mention writing two fantastic MLP stories himself. 'My Little Gear' and 'My Little Soldiers' are fantastic works and surely not to be missed!

Blumiru- Another fellow author who's been a great reviewer since his first. If you liked this story, you'll like his work, 'Overrun', one of the best Equestria invasion stories I've read to date.

Aurellius Maximus- A fellow author who's always willing to drop in and say hey. If you haven't already, check out his story 'Delivering Hope', one of my all time favourite human/Equestria stories.

SpyroLink- Another fantastic reviewer, and a good author at that, if you're a fan of Spyro or Zelda, check out this author's profile.

CerberusX- Last but by no means least, this guy/gal was a goldmine of information if ever I saw one, this user has given me some great pointers on exactly what it means to talk to a Vietnam vet, something which I've never had the privilege of doing.

Last note, this is not quite the end of this story, the main plotline has finished, but I will continue to write little episodic mini stories when the fancy takes me, if you want to suggest a plot, or even write your own, either leave it in a review or shoot me a PM, promise I'll get back to you.

I really hope you enjoyed reading my story as much as I enjoyed writing it, it's been a pleasure!


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